September 12, 2008
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INNOVATIVE VARIETY — Formaggio Italian Cheese Specialties sets out to make cheeses that stand out from others in the category by focusing on creating high-quality, innovative items.

RACKING UP THE AWARDS — Formaggio Italian Cheese Specialties received a number of awards at this year’s World Championship Cheese Contest sponsored by the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association.

By Kate Sander

HURLEYVILLE, N.Y. — When visitors stop by Formaggio Italian Cheese Specialties Inc.’s booth at a trade show, there’s one thing they can’t miss: the pride and enthusiasm that company president and owner Anthony Mongiello exudes when he talks about his cheeses.

Formaggio makes a wide array of cheeses, some traditional and some with innovative twists. But all are made with keen attention to detail and quality, Mongiello is quick to say.

Mongiello continues his family’s tradition: a dedication to innovation. In 1925, his grandfather, Lorenzo Mongiello, established a specialty canning corporation for Ricotta, Mongiello says, explaining his grandfather designed metal tapered cans and built machinery to produce them.

Mongiello’s father, Angelo Sr., continued with this creativity. Watching how workers painfully molded Mozzarella with their bare hands in hot water, he invented an automated Mozzarella cheesemaking machine, Mongiello says, subsequently earning more than a dozen patents on industry-related items, as well as building custom equipment that Formaggio still uses today.

Like father and grandfather, Anthony Mongiello invents. Rather than equipment — though he is always looking at ways to improve there, too — his true passion lies in developing cheese products that meet the needs of consumers.

Disappointed in the late 1980s and early 1990s by the lack of variety that was available at retail, Mongiello incorporated Formaggio Italian Cheese Specialties in 1992 to provide delis additional Italian cheese products that weren’t otherwise available. He has always believed that the company’s future lies in setting trends.

While the company offers some “basic” products like Fresh Mozzarella, it’s the specialty items that Mongiello has created that set Formaggio apart.

One of the company’s first products was its meat-and-cheese rolls, which Mongiello decided to create a bit differently, displaying them so that what’s on the inside also is on the outside of the rolls — something that was both eye-appealing to consumers and different from the way most other cheesemakers were making the product at the time.

“Developing products is what I do. I’ll do it until the day I die,” Mongiello says.

The company’s latest introductions include the Betta Food line, which was unveiled this summer at the International Dairy-Deli-Bakery Association’s annual trade show in New Orleans and is debuting on store shelves this fall. The line includes Feta, Brie and Blue, with additional products in research and development.

Betta Feta is a Feta flavored with marinated herbs and spices and Kalamata olives. Mongiello says this new product is the perfect pairing for salads, where the majority of Feta is used.

Meanwhile, there are also a variety of uses for Betta Brie, which contains cranberries, sliced almonds and a sweet syrup, and Betta Blue, which is a marinated Blue.

Though just rolling out to store shelves this fall, the line already features an award winner. Betta Feta won second place in the Flavored Feta class at this spring’s World Championship Cheese Contest sponsored by the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association.

Formaggio placed first in the contest’s Fresh Mozzarella class, first in the Smoked Cheeses class with its smoked Fresh Mozzarella and third in the Flavored Semi-Soft Cheese Class with its Fresh Mozzarella flavored with sun dried tomatoes and fresh basil.

The company’s entire team works hard on its products, and the end result is a collective effort, Mongiello says, adding his appreciation of the contest’s opportunity for Formaggio to shine.

Recently, Formaggio also has introduced its Just Add Lettuce salad dressing line.

The product line, says Ricky Pagan, vice president of operations, Formaggio, provides everything consumers could want for a salad.

Calling it a “3-D” salad dressing, Pagan says: “Other salad dressings give you length and width. Ours will give you height because of all the chunkiness.”

Just Add Lettuce comes in three varieties: Greek, with Feta, fresh oregano, lemon peppers, dalmathes, red onions and Kalamata olives; Spanish, featuring Pepper Jack cheese, banana pepper rings, fresh cilantro and Spanish olives with pimentos; and Italian, with Provolone, fresh basil, pepperocini and sun-dried tomatoes. The product is available in 16-ounce and 24-ounce jars.

But even as Formaggio’s product lines grow, the company remains committed to not skimping on quality, company executives say.

“We are passionate about what we do,” Mongiello says. “All of our rolls are hand-rolled, our salads are hand-tossed and our strings are hand-twisted. Formaggio makes cheese the old-fashioned way.”

Well, mostly the old-fashioned way, he concedes. The company has taken the best of hands-on production and modernized with custom equipment, high safety standards and innovative new products.

“We stretch our Mozzarella very slowly with machinery that mimics manual labor,” he says. “We never compromise quality for quantity.”

Providing consumers with high-quality products that make their lives easier and their meals more flavorful is the ongoing drive behind Formaggio Italian Cheese Specialties, according to Mongiello.

“We are consumer friendly, and we pay attention to what’s happening at the store level,” he says.

Mongiello also says he believes in treating his accounts fairly.

“Whether you have one store or 10,000 stores, we treat you the same way,” he says.

“Trust is important between the customer and the company,” he adds.

To that end, Mongiello says the company has gone to great lengths to ensure food safety.

In 2003, the company relocated from Staten Island, N.Y., to its new corporate headquarters and production facility in Hurleyville, N.Y. The custom-built plant was designed with quality and safety in mind, with solid concrete walls, floor drains that run independently from other drains, positive air pressure, microfiltered air and the like, Mongiello says.

The company has an extensive HACCP plan, and the plant is USDA-approved, something that Pagan says the company is very proud of.

The company will continue to innovate, Mongiello adds. He comes up with at least a couple of new products a year and says that with tireless dedication and imagination, the possibilities for specialty cheese products have been and will continue to be endless.

“The Formaggio difference is the flavor and quality that goes into every product,” he says.

CMN