Torre Lupara dairy farm in Campania, Italy, is one of the largest producers of buffalo mozzarella in the world. The skills needed to gather the milk, work the factory’s machines, and deploy multiple generations’s worth of hands-on knowledge, have been passed down through the Iemma family, who continually place emphasis on how this particular cheese is considered DOP Mozzarella di Bufala.
A cheese considered DOP is in a designated category of its own, as DOP stands for “Denominazione di Origine Protetta”, or Protected Designation of Origin, according to Walks of Italy. So for this cheese to be considered DOP buffalo mozzarella, “the buffalo can only live in this particular part of the world, which is Campania,” says Manuela Vigliotta, Torre Lupara’s head of communications. Therefore, the DOP classification means it’s as an authentic Italian product as you can get — as the herd of buffalo used for milking both live on the farm in the designated area of Campania, and are also fed a diet of greens, corn, and hay that are all grown right on the premises, for complete traceability.
Vigliotta goes on to explain how the farm is able to get eight liters of milk per buffalo per day from the herd, and that buffalo milk has about eight percent fat, whereas a cow’s milk has about three percent. Because buffalo milk is so rich, the farm is able to produce one kilo (about two pounds) of buffalo mozzarella per four liters of milk. For a kilo of cow’s milk mozzarella, one would need eight to twelve liters of milk.
Check out the video to see the processes, machinery, and skill it takes those working at the Torre Lupara dairy farm to make 11,000 pounds of buffalo mozzarella a day, which are sent out to grocery stores, markets, and restaurants all over the world.