Abstract: Pasta filata cheese is prepared by a process in which the cooked granular curd is held in a cold storage room prior to the mixing and stretching, which imparts the typical pasta filata stringiness to the cheese product. The process preferably uses a starter culture providing S. thermophilus and a high-temperature-growing Lactobacillus, the cooking of the curd-whey mixture at a temperature favoring the growth of these bacteria with a resulting reduction of the internal pH of the curd, separating the warm curd, contacting it with cool water, and holding the cooled curd under cool ambient conditions until the internal pH of the curd has decreased to a pH suitable for mixing. The process also preferably involves blending curd from a plurality of separate batches prior to said mixing and stretching step.