PLANT BASED DAIRY ALTERNATIVES 2022
Machinability is the key
FAM comments on (plant-based) cheese alternatives
Plant-based cheese alternatives are sometimes
difficult to make and sometimes even
more difficult to process, according to Dr. Ali
Sedaghat Doost, Food Process Engineer at FAM.
FAM as a major manufacturer of cheese cutting
technology is dedicating more emphasis on processing
of these products as they are getting ever more
popular with consumers which in turn is boosting
production volumes.
The interest for plant-based cheese products as
alternative to natural cheese products is increasing,
with the global market for such products growing at
a compound annual growth rate of 7.6% from 2016 to
2024, and is expected to reach a value of almost $4
billion by 2024. It has been also reported that there
would be a growth in plant-based cheese analogue
sales of around 42% from 2019 to 2020 of which $270
million being sold in the USA in 2020.
"Cheese is generally classified into three main
groups based on its main ingredients: natural, processed,
and imitation or substitute cheeses.",
explains Dr. Sedaghat Doost.
36 · January/February 2022 ¦ international-dairy.com
"The main ingredient of a natural cheese is milk while
a processed cheese may contain the mixture of milk-
and non-milk-based ingredients. And here in the
plant-based cheeses, the main difference is the complete
absence of casein".
It is easy to define what generally is understood in
being a cheese analogue. Such cheese substitutes or
imitations generally are products which are intended
to partly or wholly substitute or imitate cheese and
in which milk fat, milk protein or both are partially or
wholly replaced by non-milk-based alternatives, principally
of vegetable origin. And therefore, this kind of
products may not be referred to as cheese (see Codex
Alimentarius).
But cheese analogues, just like traditional cheese,
are emulsions of oil and water, wherein proteins or
other plant-based ingredients function as emulsifiers
and provide structure throughout a gel matrix similar
to natural cheese. However, the production
of cheese substitutes follows a different regime,
due to the different nature of plantorigin
materials.
(photo: FAM)
/international-dairy.com
