🧀 Saint-Marcellin

Saint-Marcellin is a French soft cheese with a protected geographical indication (PGI), made from whole cow's milk in an area east of the Rhône next to the Vercors massif, centred on the town of Saint-Marcellin in Isère.

According to the single document, the milk is raw or thermised (pasteurisation is excluded) and not standardised in fat or protein. The curd is lactic, neither kneaded nor pressed, and lightly salted. The cheese is a cylinder with rounded edges, 65 to 80 mm across and 20 to 25 mm high, weighing at least 80 g. The rind may be slightly wrinkled and is covered with white, beige to grey-blue mould; the cream-coloured paste is smooth and even. There are two types: 'dry' (more than 44 % dry matter, firm) and 'soft' (more than 40 %, melt-in-the-mouth). It cannot be marketed until at least 10 days after renneting.

At least 80 % of the cows' annual feed dry matter must come from the area, and grass in all its forms must make up at least 50 %. Milk production, cheese making and ripening all take place in the area. The label shows the name, the production unit and the EU PGI logo and/or the words 'Indication Géographique Protégée'. The name was registered in the EU in 2013.