Grana Padano PDO cheese has been a part of Italy's proud gastronomic heritage for almost 1000 years. A staple in Italian cuisine, it is the world's best-selling PDO cheese with over 5.2 million wheels (around 38kg each) produced in 2022 with over 2.3 million exported (around 44%). Grana Padano is made exclusively from raw, partially skimmed (by natural surfacing of the cream) Italian milk from the production area in the Po River Valley (Pianura Padana) in Northern Italy. It owes its name to its fine grainy structure, “grana” means “grain” in Italian, and to the production area, the Pianura Padana. This cheese has a mellow, tasty, yet never overpowering, flavour, and can be found aged between 9 months to over 24 months.    Grana Padano possesses unique nutritional features such as quality proteins, vitamins and mineral salts, especially calcium and is lactose free. Fun facts: It takes 15 litres of naturally partially skimmed milk to produce 1 kg of Grana Padano PDO 30g of Grana Padano PDO contain the same nutritional value to approximately half a litre of milk (1 pint of milk) 50g of Grana Padano PDO provide 600mg of Calcium - 60% of the daily requirement for adults, 50 % of an adolescent’s requirement.  (1 and ½ pints of milk). ·         It is naturally lactose free due to the characteristics of its production and long ageing process. The Grana Padano Protection Consortium is a non-profit organisation, which brings together producers and curers to protect and promote Grana Padano PDO cheese in the world.  It ensures that every wheel of cheese is made according to the Production Specifications so that it can be awarded its PDO status and be fire-branded with the Grana Padano mark, whilst also protecting it against fraud in Italy and abroad.