Sterilgarda

Sterilgarda Alimenti S.p.A. is an Italian dairy produce company, based in Castiglione delle Stiviere in the Province of Mantua.

Sterilgarda was formed in 1969 by a group of local dairy farming entrepreneurs to take advantage of two new technology innovations in milk production: the development of UHT milk, and the invention of the Tetrapak container. When combined, this would allow dairies to stabilise production, allowing long term storage of quantities of milk for when they were need to be purchased by consumers, and also extend the possible distribution chain even to where there was no daily door-step delivery.

Formed and still based in Castiglione delle Stiviere, the company started out by supplying just milk delivery companies. It quickly expanded in the 1970s to forming partnerships with retailers, and later into the foods market supplying milk and whey for the production of mascarpone cheese. Later in the decade, the company started centralised production of tomato paste, being close to the "hot-break" tomato production centres of the Casalasco farmers co-operative, located in Rivarolo del Re ed Uniti, Parma and Piacenza along the River Po valley.

With increased production in the 1980s, the company fully automated its production lines. This also allowed the company to extend into the production and packaging of fruit juices initially in consumable 200 millilitres (7.0 imp fl oz; 6.8 US fl oz) cellophane-wrapped packs for school children, and later family-sized litre-scale Tetrapak varieties. By the mid-1980s, the company had experimenting with the production of desserts, especially a type of yogurt without milk-protein, but that was only initially available locally to the dairy due to its needs of being produced in glass jars. Fruit juice production was also expanded, with specific lines for the mixing industry aimed at cocktails, particularly a refined tomato juice for creating a Bloody Mary. Cheese production had also expanded with the introduction of gorgonzola and mascarpone, and the introduction of cream cheese and cottage cheese production.