Saare Juust

Nobody knows exactly how long the islanders have eaten cheese. Probably since the first cow was milked on Saaremaa and the milk turned into curd. Production of cheese on Saaremaa was first mentioned in records in 1843. The first cheesery was in Tõlluste. Production of cheese on Saaremaa was developed by Mr. Schlup, a man with Swiss roots and experience. AS Saaremaa Piimatööstus is owned by the members of the local milk cooperation. In 2011 the members of the cooperation had 5000 cows in total. Milk is collected in modern milk tank trucks. The trucks are equipped with computers that register the temperature and amount of the milk and forward the information to the dairy. The quality of the collected milk is checked in the lab, before it is accepted for processing. The milk is tested for inhibitors. If there are none, the milk is suitable for processing. Also the fat and protein content and the taste of milk in each truck tank are checked. The lab of Animal Recording Centre in Tartu checks the quality of the raw milk, identifies the amount of microorganisms and the physical characteristics of the milk. The milk is graded on the basis of the test results. In average 96.8% of the collected milk is of premium grade. Here is the heart of the dairy... the raw milk is pasteurised at +72 degrees and separated into cream and skimmed milk. After separation the milk goes through the bactofuge, where spores are removed. They are unwanted in the production of high-quality cheese. Cheese milk is prepared in the tank room. It can accommodate up to 80 tons of milk at a time. Cheesery is the most important room in our dairy. Here milk becomes cheese. We produce different types of cheese: Tilsiter, Gouda, Edam and Swiss. Starter culture, rennet and calcium chloride are added to the cheese milk. Curd grain is formed in the cheese vat and fused into cheese mass in the pre-press. Finally the cheese is pressed in moulds, where heads of cheese are shaped. Cheese is salted in the brine bath for 12 to 72 hours. After that it contains up to 1.4% salt. Cheese is wrapped in plastic, weighed and labelled. Every batch has a unique batch number. A head of cheese weighs about 15 kg. Cheese is ripened minimum 30 days in the cheese cellar. Swiss cheeses ripen a longer time, 3 months to a year. There is 400 tons of cheese in the ripening cellar at a time. Big heads of cheese are cut and packaged in smaller packs that are convenient to use. Sliced, cut in blocks or shredded. The slice line produces up to 36 packs per minute. Slices from such packs are good for sandwiches. The capacity of the flow line is up to 56 packs per minute. Cheese blocks weighing 350 g to 1 kg are packed here. Shredded cheese can be used to add flavour to food, such as pizza. Maximum 4 kg of cheese is shredded per minute. A new butter line was put in service in February 2012. The butter machine produces 1000 kg butter per hour. We make traditional Estonian butter with 82% of fat. Butter with different additives can be made on the new butter line. In 2012 we introduced a new product, Saaremaa butter with salt crystals. We sell about 70% of our products in home market. The rest is exported to Finland, Russia and other countries. AS Pinus, a subsidiary of AS Saaremaa Piimatööstus, was founded in 1997 for distribution of our products in Estonia. This arrangement ensures that the consumer gets high-quality products with no delay. A good selection of our cheeses is waiting for consumers at Rimi in Ülemiste and other grocery stores.