People of labor: Loyalty to his favorite business helped the young specialist to establish the production of unique cheeses with white mold in Tatarstan
Today, the hero of our column “People of Labor”, in which we write not about famous personalities, but about real workers who deserve respect by devotion to their favorite work, rich experience and high professionalism. One of these is a young cheese maker Alexander Vyacheslavovich Afanasyev from the village of Alsheevo, Buinsky district of Tatarstan. Alexander works as a chief technologist at a unique cheese factory in the Kamsko-Ustyinsky district of the republic, where “Camembert” and “Brie” noble mold cheeses are produced using proper technology.
A young specialist can talk about the production of cheese for hours and at these moments his eyes literally burn, so cheese making has become his favorite thing. In 2011 he graduated from the Faculty of Agricultural Mechanization of Kazan Agrarian University and returned to his place to work in his specialty.
“In 2014, after the introduction of sanctions and a ban on the import of cheeses from Europe, we began to produce cheeses with white mold,” says Alexander. - In the process of work, I studied the production of soft and semi-hard cheeses in the city of Uglich, Yaroslavl Region. Due to the lack of white mold cheese in the Russian market, he studied the technology of their production. In the process, he studied the Russian and European starter and mold cultures necessary for the production of cheeses. Experimentally, he deduced the optimal formulation, which is in demand on the Russian market. To produce a quality product that meets European analogues, it was decided to start monitoring the quality of raw materials for cheeses from the very beginning of the chain - milk production. We began close cooperation with the Small Meretkozino MLC, prescribed norms and standards for keeping cows, feeding, milking and storing milk for its further processing. ”
Having received high-quality raw materials, we launched the production of Camembert cheese. At Russian and international exhibitions all participants liked it and the experts gave best recommendations. Today cheeses are already present in many federal and regional networks, such as Metro, Lenta, Auchan.
Speaking about plans for the future, Alexander Afanasyev said that he is currently developing fermented milk, high-protein products of European analogues.