Gli standard qualitativi del latte tra scienza, industria e allevamento (Italia, prima metà del del sec. XX)

[Autom. eng. transl.] For some time now, according to precise national and community provisions, bovine milk must have defined and standardized organoleptic characteristics. These properties are particularly interested in the dairy industry which currently absorbs about 80% of the total milk produced in Italy. Where and when were the quality standards of milk (hygienic, chemical-physical, organoleptic) born? And with what effects on the entire supply chain? The needs of the dairy industry derived from the new production orientations of the sector. Until the nineteenth century, for reasons related to marketing and conservation, mainly hard cheeses were produced that did not need a particularly high-fat milk. In the last decades of the nineteenth century, industrial enterprises arose whose interest was the diversification of production, increasing the amount of fatty dairy products that were previously used for self-consumption or sold on the local market. In this paper we want to study the impact of industrialization and the change in dairy consumption in Italy on livestock production, and on the latter's compliance in terms of new animals, new practices, new mentalities and new relationships with transformation activities. Above all, we will take into consideration the western Po Valley, where there is the greatest concentration of livestock, processing industries and outlet markets.