New culture concept for Continental cheese types in South America

Offering major advantages to cheese producers and consumers Chr. Hansen launches new freeze-dried cheese cultures in South and Central America.

The fast-growing Brazilian market will be the first to benefit from the new culture concept, freeze-dried RSF (FD-RSF), which builds on the success of Chr. Hansen’s well-known RSF culture range.

The new cultures meet the requirements of the cheese industry for fast acidification and increased protection against phage attacks. They also offer benefits to the consumers in terms of great flavor and improved sliceability. In addition the freeze-dried product is easy and convenient to handle and store which reduces complexity in the logistic system.

Adding value to customers' brands

“With the launch of the FD-RSF cultures our dairy customers in Brazil will be able to produce Continental cheese such as Prato with a much better taste than existing cheese on the market. The new cultures address the needs for faster acidification during the production process, allowing our customers to produce cheese with great taste in shorter time. The cultures also add value to our customers' brands by providing the finished cheese with a pleasant and nutty flavor,” states Lúcio Alberti Forti Antunes, Dairy Division Manager, Chr. Hansen Brazil.

“Starting out with Brazil, we intend to offer this new concept to the entire dairy market in South and Central American countries. It is our goal to increase the market share in this segment through higher cheese quality and increased cheese consumption”.

Better flavor – improved convenience

The FD-RSF cultures contain the Lactobacillus helveticus strain which provides the typical sweet and nutty flavor development in cheese particularly appreciated by consumers in Brazil. Using the Direct Vat Set® technology (DVS^®), the new freeze-dried cultures offer dairy customers a number of advantages in terms of flexibility in use, consistent performance, reduced contamination risk and better process control.

Promising market potential

Theis Bacher, Marketing Manager, Cheese Cultures, adds: "It is important to note that this product has many other applications than the production of Prato cheese. All dairy customers who are looking for a freeze-dried culture that produces cheese without holes, with great flavor and offering high protection against phages should seriously consider this product”.

The Continental cheese segment accounts for 26% of the total cheese market, producing around 313,000 tons per year in the region. Brazil is the main producer accounting for 43% of the segment.