Beaufort is a protected designation of origin for a French cheese produced in Savoie in a production area that includes the Beaufortain valley from which it takes its name.

Beaufort is a raw cow's milk cheese with a pressed cooked paste. It is molded in the shape of a wheel with a slightly concave heel. In the past, it represented an important production, but it has paid a heavy price to the rural exodus and its high production cost.

It has had an AOC since 1968. Today it is a flagship product of Savoyard cuisine; from Savoyard fondue to crozet gratin, Beaufort is present on many tables of regional tourist places

At that time, the mountain abbeys started a colossal work: clearing the mountain pastures and creating huge grazing areas to practice transhumance.

The milk of the cows produced at the time a cheese called vachelin. Already, the use of large cheeses with pressed paste was established. From that time on, cheese was the mainstay of the local economy based on agropastoralism.

From the 17th century, the Beaufortain region produced Gruyère type cheeses under the name of Grovire. Its quality created a reputation outside of its native mountains and during the French Revolution, the committee of public salvation brought in 10,000 tons to feed Parisa The origin of the concave shape of the cheese wheel would come from two possible reasons. This shape prevents the cheese from collapsing during the maturing process and makes it easier to bind the cheeses with a rope on the back of a mule during the descent from the mountain pasture. This cheese production ensures a relatively easy agricultural income.

The producers have a small herd capable of producing one or two wheels of cheese per milking. The smallest breeders group together to reach the minimum quantities for the implementation of an alpine cheese workshop.

The cowherd climbs successively to several chalets of increasing altitude with his herd, while the rest of the family harvests the forage in the valley. The milk is processed on site. A cooperative ripening company created in 1939 opened four cellars. This structure allowed the cheese, which had previously been sold at low prices when it came down from the mountain pastures, to be better valued.

In the 1960s, milk was paid at the same price as that of the large farms on the plains; with the increase in the cost of labor and the rural exodus, production dropped to 500 tons. A few producers then looked for a way to produce a high quality cheese, the selling price of which could adequately remunerate its producers, despite the extra costs associated with the constraints of the high mountains.

The cooperative approach was favored to ensure the production, maturing and sale of the cheese. Improvements were made in terms of quality by setting up a technical service associated with public research organizations such as INRA, but also in terms of work comfort (generalization of mechanized milking, even in the mountains, and tools for harvesting fodder). In parallel with these qualitative efforts, a request for recognition was filed with the INAO; it led to the accession to the appellation d'origine contrôlée (controlled origin) in 1968.

For this, the industry had to adopt specifications limiting the production area to the Beaufortain, Maurienne and Tarentaise valleys and part of the Val d'Arly. For Frédérique Hermine, "this is the most restrictive specification of the dairy AOC.

It has undergone changes and its latest version dates from January 18, 2014.