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Cheese from Argentina

Queso cremosoQueso Cremoso

Argentina's soft table cheese. Whole or standardised cow milk, sometimes with cream, is pasteurised, soured with a lactic culture and set with rennet; the uncooked curd is moulded, chilled, salted and ripened in the cold. The code requires at least 20 days of ripening for cheeses under 2.5 kg and at least 50% fat in dry matter.

Fully documentedCheese20 daysDefined in the Código Alimentario Argentino, Art. 622Family: Uncooked or semi-cooked pressed cheese family (tomme, Saint-Nectaire, Reblochon, Morbier, Raclette)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe code fixes composition and minimum ripening, not amounts. It sets ripening times for cheeses under 2.5 kg and for 2.5 to 5.0 kg.
Whole or standardised cow milk, with or without added creamThe code requires pasteurisation or an equivalent heat treatment, except for cheeses ripened above 5 °C for at least 60 days[caa]
Lactic acid bacteria culture[caa]
Rennet and/or specific clotting enzymes[caa]
Salt[caa]
Starterlactic acid bacteria culture

Total time across the recorded steps: 20 days

Start
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What changes: Whole cow milk, with or without cream, is pasteurised

Step 1 of 5
Pasteurise the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

The code requires pasteurisation, or an equivalent heat treatment giving a negative phosphatase test, for cheeses not ripened above 5 °C for at least 60 days.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Argentina's soft table cheese. Whole or standardised cow milk, sometimes with cream, is pasteurised, soured with a lactic culture and set with rennet; the uncooked curd is moulded, chilled, salted and ripened in the cold. The code requires at least 20 days of ripening for cheeses under 2.5 kg and at least 50% fat in dry matter. Made in 5 steps over 20 days. The longest step, ripen cold, takes at least 20 days (Código Alimentario Argentino 2025) and runs at 4 °C (Mammarella E.J 2000).

Key numbers
Main stepat least 20 daysSet[caa]Ripen cold
Temperature4 °CReported[mammarella2000]Ripen cold

What makes this one different

Unlike cuartirolo, the code allows added cream, requires at least 50% fat in dry matter and has the cheese chilled and ripened in the cold; its taste is described as sweet.

Milk
Whole or standardised cow milk, cream may be added; pasteurised
Ripening
At least 20 days under 2.5 kg, at least 30 days for 2.5–5.0 kg, in the cold
Composition
High or very high moisture class (46.0% and up); fat in dry matter at least 50.0%

Related ferments

Safety

The milk must be pasteurised. The code's limits for this cheese allow no Listeria monocytogenes or Salmonella in 25 g.

Hazards the sources name: Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella must be absent in 25 g; coagulase-positive staphylococci are limited to 100–1000 per g.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

The Código Alimentario Argentino defines Queso Cremoso in article 622, in the text set by Joint Resolutions SPRyRS 33/2006 and SAGPyA 563/2006, dated 13 September 2006.

  1. [caa] Código Alimentario Argentino, Capítulo VIII Alimentos lácteos, Art. 605 (cheese hygiene, pasteurisation and microbiological criteria) and Art. 622 (Queso Cremoso), ANMAT, update of October 2025spec
  2. [mammarella2000] Mammarella E.J., De Piante Vicín D.A., Rubiolo A.C. 2000, Efecto del proceso de congelamiento-descongelamiento sobre las características reológicas de quesos blandos argentinos, MERCOFRIO 2000 congress, paper r0901paper
  3. [hynes2001] Hynes E.R., Meinardi C.A., Sabbag N., Cattaneo T., Candioti M.C., Zalazar C.A. 2001, Influence of milk-clotting enzyme concentration on the alphas1-casein hydrolysis during soft cheeses ripening, Journal of Dairy Science 84, pp. 1335-1340 (abstract)paper