Danisco meets unmet need for frozen cheese cultures

Major investment at US plant responds to rapid growth of the cheese culture market.

More capacity and new facilities will go into operation this April at the Danisco cultures plant in Madison, USA, to meet the growing US demand for frozen Direct Vat Inoculants (DVI) cultures for cheese.

The $9 million investment includes one of the biggest ultra-cold stores in the world and a high-tech automatic packaging line for handling frozen DVI cultures in pellet form.

Danisco has also added two new DVI culture lines for parmesan and cottage cheese, supplementing the existing lines for pizza cheese and American-style cheese.

“The purpose of the investment was to develop new solutions to meet the unmet need for low cost-in-use DVI cultures for the US cheese market,” says Patrick Veau, vice-president of the dairy & food cultures business unit at Danisco. “As a big part of that, we have expanded our production capacity within deep-frozen pellets, which cheese manufacturers can use directly from frozen.”

The DVI conversion

Since launching the frozen DVI cultures CHOOZIT™ QUICK and CHOOZIT™ MC, Danisco has experienced rapidly growing demand as more manufacturers convert from traditional bulk starter cultures to the more reliable DVI solutions.

The new facilities are designed to meet demand expectations for the next five years. The Madison expansion is the latest in Danisco’s ongoing investment plan.

Two years ago Danisco extended its plant in Niebüll, Germany, in response to European market growth as well as Sassenage, France freeze-dried capacity for worldwide markets. “Other investments are planned to reinforce our leading market position. And we have many new cultures to come,” says Patrick Veau.

Danisco produces cultures at six sites around the world: Niebüll in Germany, Sassenage, Dangé Saint Romain and Epernon in France, Olsztyn in Poland, and Madison in the United States. The Madison plant supplies the dairy and health market with frozen and freeze-dried cultures, colours and flavor enzymes.