Producer

Sacco System

HQ IT · Cadorago, Como, Lombardywebsite ↗

Italian family-owned biotechnology company founded 1935; third or fourth-largest global producer of dairy starter cultures (mesophilic and thermophilic) and cheese cultures. Specializes in cultures for Italian-style cheeses (Grana Padano, Parmigiano-Reggiano, Asiago) and cultured butter. Also produces wine yeasts and sourdough cultures from the same fermentation facility in Cadorago.

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Facilities

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  • Dairy Starter Cultures

    50%
  • Wine & Fermentation Yeasts

    25%
  • Sourdough & Baking Cultures

    15%
  • Probiotic & Functional

    10%

Intelligence

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  • Did you know2024

    Sacco System's Cadorago facility simultaneously produces: (1) dairy starter cultures for Italian Parmigiano-Reggiano and Grana Padano DOC cheeses — the protected-designation-of-origin Italian hard cheeses that require specific thermophilic culture strains; (2) wine yeasts for Italian winemakers from Barolo to Amarone DOC regions; and (3) sourdough starter cultures for Italian artisan and industrial bakeries. Three pillars of Italian food culture — hard cheese, wine, and bread — share the same Lombardy fermentation company as their culture supplier. The Italian restaurant experience of a Parmigiano shaving on pasta, a Barolo in the glass, and a sourdough pane to accompany it may all trace to Sacco's Cadorago facility — the same Italian microbiology making the lactic acid bacteria in the cheese, the Saccharomyces in the wine, and the sourdough wild yeast-bacteria community in the bread.

    Sacco System srl
  • Origin2023

    Sacco System was founded in 1935 in Cadorago, Como Province, Lombardy — in the heart of Italy's dairy and agricultural tradition, close to the Po Valley where Grana Padano and Parmigiano-Reggiano DOC cheeses originate. The company was founded specifically to serve Italian cheesemakers who needed reliable starter cultures to ensure batch-to-batch consistency in traditional Italian aged cheeses. Sacco remains family-owned across 90 years — an unusual longevity in a market where the three global giants (Novonesis/Chr. Hansen, Lallemand, IFF/DuPont) have consolidated most competitors. The family's decision to remain independent was commercially validated: Sacco's specialization in Italian-style cheese cultures (thermophilic and complex mixed cultures for hard Italian cheeses) gave it a defensible niche that generalist multinationals served less well. The same Cadorago facility that has made Italian cheese cultures since 1935 now also produces wine yeasts for Italian winemakers and sourdough cultures for artisan bakeries — fermentation microbiology applied to three pillars of Italian food culture.

    Sacco System srl