Erasmo Neviani is full professor of Agricultural Microbiology since 2002 at the Food and Drug Department of the University of Parma. Formerly, he has been Dean of Faculty of Agriculture- University of Parma (2009-2012), Head of Microbiology and Enzymology Department of Dairy Research Institute (Lodi, Italy) of Italian Ministry of Agriculture (1996-2002) and President of SIMTREA - Italian Society of Agricultural, Food and Environment (2013-2015).

His main research areas concern Food Microbiology with a specific expertise in Dairy microbiology. The main part of his research work was dedicated to the study of lactic acid bacteria used in Dairy fermentations, with particular regard to their technological performances. His research activity can be resumed as follows: [i] Microbiology and technology of dairy products; [ii] Molecular microbiology and biotechnology of lactic acid bacteria [iii] population dynamics and behavior of lactic acid bacteria in food fermentation; [iv] microbial interactions in natural food ecosystems; [v] microbial enzymatic activities and cheese ripening; [vi] food safety and processing; and [vii] human intestinal microbiome in response todietary habits, diseases and food intolerance. He has authored about 300 publications that relate to the microbiology of dairy food, most of them (ca. 150) in international journals.

Patrick F. Fox is Emeritus Professor of Food Chemistry at University College, Cork, Ireland. His teaching and research interests are on various aspects of Dairy Chemistry, especially , the production and ripening of cheese, heat stability of milk, physico-chemical properties of milk proteins and dairy enzymology. He is the author or co-other of about 600 peer-reviewed publications, author or editor of about 30 books on Dairy Chemistry and one of the founding editors of the International Dairy Journal in 1990.

Chapter 1: The orgins of cheesemaking.- Chapter 2: The history and culture of Italian cheeses in the middle age.- Chapter 3: Cheese: an overview.- Chapter 4: Classification of cheese.- Chapter 5: The distinguishing features of Italian cheese manufacture.- Chapter 6: The most traditional and popular Italian cheeses.