Pâturages Comtois was founded in 1985 following the merger of several small municipal cooperatives based in Haute-Saône. Long-standing producers of Emmental IGP Grand Cru Label Rouge, they successfully reinvented themselves by turning their attention to soft cheeses with bloomy rinds and washed rinds. The adventure has thus continued, step by step and collectively, driven by a desire to move forward and expand the range of cheeses, whilst never forgetting its roots. Now known as Pâturages Comtois, the cooperative has continued to diversify, producing Metton for Cancoillotte and Gruyère de France PGI.
Today, Pâturages Comtois had three production facilities:
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1 soft cheese workshop in Aboncourt-Gésincourt, our historic site
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1 pressed cheese workshop in Aboncourt-Gésincourt
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1 cancoillotte workshop in Clerval, in the Doubs
Deeply rooted in its local area, our cooperative has also successfully expanded into foreign markets. Europe, USA, Canada, Ukraine, Israel, the Middle East, Australia: our cheeses travel far and wide.
We have grown, yet we have deliberately chosen to remain a true cooperative. The nearly 100 dairy farmers who are members of the cooperative today, and with whom we are fortunate to work, did not join us by chance. They share Pâturages Comtois’s convictions, values and ambitions. We are both a large family and a small team, where everyone retains their independence and decision-making power.
All producers are members of the cooperative; this means that Pâturages Comtois is, in a sense, an extension of their dairy farms and that they are therefore fully involved in adding value to their milk.
Thanks to their diversity and expertise, our partner producers are perfectly equipped to meet the various production specifications (Gruyère de France PGI, Emmental PGI Grand Cru Label Rouge, Metton and Cancoillotte PGI, organic farming, etc.). Season after season, they ensure that the rich pastures of our countryside and the banks of the Saône are farmed in a sensible and sustainable manner.
Over the past 40 years, we have not only produced tonnes of cheese, we have also refined our values. Quality, safety, enjoyment: for each of our products, we are committed to meeting the requirements of regulations and specifications.
Since 2007, our cheese dairy has held BRC (British Retail Consortium) certification. Although this certification applies solely to soft cheeses, we also apply the spirit of this global standard – with its rigorous hygiene and quality requirements – to our other processes.
Pâturages Comtois is also certified as an Organic Farm for the production of soft cheeses and metton.
It’s simple: at our company, quality control is carried out from the raw material right through to the finished product. Throughout the production process, physico-chemical tests (moisture content, fat content, salt, pH, temperature) and microbiological tests (production environment, equipment and products) are carried out according to a precise plan. For each product, the Quality team reviews the results and approves both the production and the marketing of our products. Thanks to their expertise, we can guarantee you healthy, high-quality products all year round.
Quality control also means tasting! To monitor the organoleptic properties of our products, we taste them regularly and carefully.
Whether it be waste treatment, the management of our own wastewater treatment plant, the optimisation of milk collection routes or energy recovery, we are committed to minimising our environmental impact on a daily basis.
