Laitier
The French label for cheese made in a dairy from milk collected from many farms.
Also: fromage laitier, dairy-made
Laitier, from lait, milk, is one of the French categories for how a cheese is made. A fromage laitier is produced in a dairy, often large, from milk collected from many farms in the area. Most of France's AOP cheeses are available as laitier as well as fermier, and laitier versions are usually more consistent and more widely sold. The word has no negative meaning in France, where good cooperative dairies, the fruitières of the Jura that make Comté among them, produce excellent cheese from pooled local milk. The full ladder runs from fermier, made on the farm, through artisanal and coopérative to laitier and industrial.