Natural Alpine Cheese - what is it?

Some define them as artisanal cheeses made with raw milk and without the use of selected starters. In recent years, even small-scale, raw milk productions are increasingly employing industrial starters selected by a few large multinationals in their manufacturing processes, which undoubtedly “help” to manage cheesemaking more safely but, on the other hand, result in a trivialisation of the cheese. 

Milks of the highest quality too often end up being processed with the use of the now famous “sachets” of starter cultures. The result is the general levelling of the playing field in terms of cheese quality and characteristics. However in Switzerland many cheesemakers are working without selected starters but producing their own milk-graft or whey-graft, in order to preserve their microbial biodiversity and offer consumers an authentic expression of their areas of origin. The idea of a natural cheese is positive however it comes alongside other important factors. There is not only milk, rennet and salt, but the work of a milk producer who is attentive to animal welfare, respectful of the environment, and who protects biodiversity, including the invisible biodiversity formed by thousands of different microorganisms from the pasture to the dairy. Producing cheeses without industrial ferments is possible, and desirable, if we are to avoid a general homogenization of the cheese panorama.