There are almost one hundred varieties of truffles in nature, but only nine are considered edible and can be on the market. After harvesting, the truffles are manually selected according to their shape and aroma. The best ones are sold to be eaten fresh or frozen for export. To be categorized as the best ones, apart from the tuber’s shape and size, the truffle must be hard to the touch and above all, it has to smell a little earthy.

When the mixture is ready, a volumetric dosing machine fills glass jars with the truffle cream, which a capping machine then seals immediately afterward. To extend the product shelf life and to remove the presence of pathogenic microorganisms, producers place truffle cream jars in an autoclave for sterilization. Thanks to the applied heat, you can eliminate the biological agents that compromise food safety.

In addition to preserving the land, farmers are trying to farm truffles, but the process is not so simple and there are some varieties that cannot be cultivated at all, like Italian white. When planting a tree, you need to make sure it has the right soil conditions (well-drained soil and pH between 7.5 and 8.3) and then inoculate it with the truffle fungus. The important thing is to keep the tree healthy by watering it constantly. But even so, it may take years before you get a good harvest and there’s no guarantee that the result will be worth the effort. “Using state-of-the-art climate model projections, we predict that a significant decline of 78-100% in southern European truffle production is likely to occur between 2071 and 2100.”