The milk produced by the members is daily collected at daybreak from about 120 farm houses spread on the Northern Murgian territory of Bari and on the bordering territory of Lucania.
The gathering is carried out every day of the year; every member has got a certain number of reserved sectors and/or tins as to avoid to mix his milk with the others’.
That is why at the withdrawal of the milk, every member seals his tanker sector and/or his tins with a wire plumbed by nippers which bear the personal member code.

The milk arrives at the establishment of Corato and a Cooperative employed removes the seals put by the members during the gathering.

After the analyst authorization, and the confirmation that the above mentioned necessary requirements are present, there is the milk drainage. It is weighed and sent to the tankers for the different processings:

• Section of alimentay milk production;
• Section of goat’s and ewe’s-milk production;
• Section of cheeses and stringy dough (mozzarella).

Once verified the seal integrity, the same employed takes a sampling of the milk coming from every single member.

After the sampling taking, the analyst uses the advanced equipment present in the Cooperative laboratory of chemical and microbiological analysis, to carry out the analytic control and check that the following minimum requirements are present, to authorize the milk draining:

• Temperature
• Acidity
• Total absence of inhibiting substances and/or medicines
• Total absence of water.

The milk that gets here is that produced by the 6 members regularly authorized according to the current law about milk for bottling (D.D.M.M. 9 may 1991, n° 184-185). It is pasteurized just ONCE within and not later than 4 hours after the second milking, as provided for and regulated in the 4th article, Law 3 may 1989 n° 169 that you find here below:
Art. 4 -1. It can be defined “fresh pasteurized milk” the raw milk which gets the manufacturing establishment and, undergoing just one heat treatment within 48 hours after milking, presents the following characteristics at the moment of consumption:

• Alkaline phosphatasis test  - Negative
• The content of soluble not denatured serumproteins has to be not less than 14% of the total proteins
• Peroxidasis Test – Positive

The milk that gets here is that produced by the 6 members regularly authorized according to the current law about milk for bottling (D.D.M.M. 9 may 1991, n° 184-185). It is pasteurized just ONCE within and not later than 4 hours after the second milking, as provided for and regulated in the 4th article, Law 3 may 1989 n° 169 that you find here below:
Art. 4 -1. It can be defined “fresh pasteurized milk” the raw milk which gets the manufacturing establishment and, undergoing just one heat treatment within 48 hours after milking, presents the following characteristics at the moment of consumption:

• Alkaline phosphatasis test  - Negative
• The content of soluble not denatured serumproteins has to be not less than 14% of the total proteins
• Peroxidasis Test – Positive.

The milk that gets this division is that produced by the 6 members regularly authorized according to the current law about milk for bottling (D.D.M.M. 9 may 1991, n° 184-185). It is pasteurized just ONCE within and not later than 4 hours after the second milking, as provided for and regulated in the 4th article, Law 3 may 1989 n° 169 that you find here below:
Art. 4 -1. It can be defined “fresh pasteurized milk” the raw milk which gets the manufacturing establishment and, undergoing just one heat treatment within 48 hours after milking, presents the following characteristics at the moment of consumption:

• Alkaline phosphatasis test  - Negative
• The content of soluble not denatured serumproteins has to be not less than 14% of the total proteins
• Peroxidasis Test – Positive

The milk that gets this division is that produced by the 6 members regularly authorized according to the current law about milk for bottling (D.D.M.M. 9 may 1991, n° 184-185). It is pasteurized just ONCE within and not later than 4 hours after the second milking, as provided for and regulated in the 4th article, Law 3 may 1989 n° 169 that you find here below:
Art. 4 -1. It can be defined “fresh pasteurized milk” the raw milk which gets the manufacturing establishment and, undergoing just one heat treatment within 48 hours after milking, presents the following characteristics at the moment of consumption:

• Alkaline phosphatasis test  - Negative
• The content of soluble not denatured serumproteins has to be not less than 14% of the total proteins
• Peroxidasis Test – Positive

All the goat’s and sheep’s milk of the day undergoes a further cleaning treatment with a “cleanin machine”. The 80% of it is transformed the day of arrival, the remaining 20% is processed at the first hours of the following day.
The sheep’s and goat’s milk is transformed into the following products:
FROM SHEEP’S MILK:

1. Ewe’s-milk cheese “Murgiano Primo Sole”
2. Ewe’s-milk cheese “Canestraio Pugliese DOP”
3. Ewe’s milk Scamorza

FROM GOAT’S MILK

1. Goat’s milk Caciotte
2. Cacioricotta

The cheese is introduced into moulds for the following phases:

1. Stewing (which lasts from 6 to 12 hours)
2. Salting (which lasts till 24 hours according to cheese size)
3. Ripening which lasts 15 days for the caciotte and 12 months for the ripe Canestrato DOP.

After the introduction of the curd into the moulds, the residual serum is used to produce the following products:

1. Ewe’s-milk Ricotta Cream
2. Ewe’s-milk Ricotta

The surplus of the above mentioned products (during the 3 spring months) is used to produce “Ricotta Marzotica” and “Strong Ricotta”.

Thanks to our fleet of vehicles and trucks with cold room, our products are distributed in the sales points.

The products of the apulian cheese factory cooperative are distributed in the associated sales points spread on the territory of Puglia and Basilicata.