Production Process

To end up with a product that meets the very high quality standards that we set ourselves at Felsineo SpA, the first big task is the choice of the meat, which in our company is entrusted to people with more than twenty years' experience in the field.

We only use selected pork cuts to make our mortadella (shoulder, lean ground meat, stomach and lard). The first step in the process is to finely grind the lean pork to a paste, then add it to the mixer along with the fat squares (also made to specific guidelines) and the rest of the ingredients (salt, pepper, sodium ascorbate, sodium nitrite, and in some cases pistachios). The uncooked mixture is then stuffed into a natural or synthetic cellulose casings.

The mortadella is then cooked in hot dry air ovens (computer-controlled): the final temperature in the centre of the product is at least 70°C for large mortadellas and 74°C for smaller ones. As a general guide, about one hour's cooking time is needed for each centimetre of the diameter of the mortadella (for instance, a 30kg, 20cm wide mortadella would take 20 hours to cook).

After cooking, the mortadella is then cooled and either vacuum or protective-atmosphere packed (it takes 3 days in total to complete the production cycle). Packing the mortadella in this way at the correct conservation temperature stabilizes and locks in the organoleptic properties for the entire lifetime of the product.

"It's been a long time since the days of the mortar and pestle.... nowadays we use the very latest technology to guarantee product quality and safety.

COLD ROOMS: The low temperatures are maintained via control probes inside the room which send data continuously to the control software.

GRINDING EQUIPMENT: This equipment checks the weights of each component to the utmost accuracy and grinds the raw meat without ruining any of its most distinctive features. The paste is then fed through 0.8mm apertures and transported to the mixers.

PREPARATION OF THE FAT: The fat from the throat of the animal is cut into cubes, washed in hot water, dripped dry then added to the meat paste. These cubes are the characteristic white squares embedded into each mortadella and visible in each slice.

CASING: Semi-automatic machines are used to fill the rich paste into the food casings, leaving the traditional task of sealing them to human operators where necessary.

OVENS AND COOLING MIST: Advanced software combined with probes placed in the product core maintain close control over this extremely delicate stage. The special ovens are kept on around the clock, feeding in hot dry air that takes the core temperature up to at least 70°C. The cooling mists after cooking are controlled by the same software and produced by a jet of vaporized cold water and chillers.

PACKAGING LINES: On leaving the cooling mists, the mortadellas can then be packaged on bell vacuum, thermoforming or protective-atmosphere flow pack machines. On the labelling machinery at the end of the line, data can be uploaded automatically; this guarantees that at the end of the process, products will be given a unique identifier stating the ingredients and the various stages of the production cycle.

MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE: The integrated software running the process from receipt of ingredients through to product sales gives us a full history of each mortadella, from the meats used to the final destination.