DuPont launches new starter cultures for industrial-sized cheesemakers

Industrial pizza cheese and pasta filata makers need consistency and reliability in their operations. Under intense pressure to operate efficiently, cheese plants are sometimes forced to adjust their process times due to starter cultures that don’t perform consistently, which causes production delays that impact quality and, ultimately, the bottom line.

According to Innova Market Insights, during 2012 to 2017, cheese new product development increased at 15.5 percent compound annual growth rate. Speaking to FoodIngredientsFirst, Jeff Lambeseder, Regional Product Manager – NAFTA, Starter Cultures, DuPont Nutrition & Health notes: “The increasing perception of cheese as a natural and healthy snack option, interest in origin, consumer demand for unusual flavors and convenient formats (slices, strings, spreadable) were cited as key factors in driving these product launches. CHOOZIT SWIFT 600 and CHOOZIT AMERI-FLEX are label-friendly ingredients, labeled as cultures which sound positive to customers.”

“The cheese category is growing as it’s becoming more perceived as a healthy source of nutrition. We see more growth in foodservice and catering where cheese is used as an ingredient as more people are eating away from home or have less time to prepare their meals. More innovation can be done to improve the consistency, flavor and functionality of the cheese specific to customer applications,” he explains.

CHOOZIT SWIFT 600 is the newest offering in the CHOOZIT product line that has been available for years in the Americas and European markets. This range of starter cultures provides a solution for high-volume industrial pizza cheese and pasta filata makers, who are looking to increase productivity with no compromise on quality.

Claimed to be the most robust range available on the market today, CHOOZIT SWIFT 600 is mostly resistant to bacteriophage and rarely impacted by changes in milk or the plant environment. In comparison with other cheese cultures on the market, CHOOZIT SWIFT 600 cultures are formulated for fast and consistent acidification time and produce more consistent texture. The result is fast-making pizza cheese, day after day.

“While our competitors may offer one to two consistently high-performing starter cultures, ours allow customers to utilize six rotations,” says Cheese Senior Application Specialist Brian Bartholomew, DuPont Nutrition & Health. “This brings about such consistency in production that pizza cheese and pasta filata makers can set the cultures and then move on without worry to other steps in the production process. The robust culture rotation eliminates production delays we often see in daily cheese making, allowing plants to work at greater speeds without jeopardizing texture or overall quality.”

Today, many cheese manufacturers are frequently adjusting processing times and conditions to obtain the desired performance from culture programs offered by competitors. These adjustments impact the consistency of their cheese yield regarding attaining moisture and dry solid targets to produce cheeses that meet their customers’ specifications. CHOOZIT SWIFT 600 cultures have been designed to ensure iso-functional performance and consistent and secure acidification. This helps food manufacturers to improve the shelf-life and functionality of their products while reducing the potential for downgrades. CHOOZIT SWIFT 600 Cultures are the last generation within the broad portfolio of CHOOZIT FIT & SWIFT Cultures with proven success to support the growth of the global pizza cheese industry.

DuPont Nutrition & Health is also introducing CHOOZIT AMERI-FLEX, for American style cheese, including cheddar, colby and jack. Similar to CHOOZIT SWIFT 600, CHOOZIT AMERI-FLEX consists of starter cultures that have been proven to improve quality and consistency of cheese production under a variety of different cheese-making parameters.

CHOOZIT AMERI-FLEX is a one-bag direct to vat culture system. The convenient single pouch blend of fast acidifying mesophilic and thermophilic strains is formulated for reliability, dependability and phage robustness. Two robust formulations in this range are designed to provide flexibility for producing American cheese types in multiple processing conditions. CHOOZIT AMERI-FLEX provides consistent and dependable acidification from vat to vat, day to day.