Pasta Filata – a tasty, stringy pizza cheese

Pasta Filata cheeses are perfectly suited for pizza and other hot dishes. Thanks to the increasing demand for consumer convenience, and the Westernisation of South East Asian dietary habits, there is a global growing demand for the Pasta Filata segment.

Pasta Filata cheeses gain an elastic texture when heated, and form long strings when the melted cheese is pulled. Low-moisture Mozzarella and pizza cheese are varieties of Pasta Filata cheeses, designed to meet the requirements of pizza manufacturers. This is a rapidly growing cheese segment.

Originally from southern Italy

Pasta Filata cheeses were originally from southern Italy, including Provolone, Mozzarella and Caciocavallo (a stretched-curd cheese made from sheep or cow milk). Today, several other countries produce these cheeses with a staggering half of the world’s consumption produced in the USA. The related Kashkaval chesse (a yellow cheese made from cow milk, sheep milk or both) is produced in several Eastern European countries. These cheeses are manufactured by cooking and stretching cheddared curd.