Danisco US expansion increases DVI capacity
capacity and meet the growing demand for low-cost frozen Direct Vat
Inoculants (DVI) cheese cultures.
The ingredients company said it has experienced strong demand for its frozen DVI cultures Choozit range, which it developed as an easier, cheaper and more reliable alternative to traditional bulk starter cultures. As well as improving the facilities to meet customer requirements more effectively, the company has developed new DVI cultures 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-used DVI cultures for the US cheese market," said Patrick Veau, vice president of the dairy and food cultures business unit. "As a big part of that, we have expanded our production capacity within deep-frozen pellets, which cheese manufacturers can use directly from frozen." DVI demand Bulk starter cultures can be slow to react, according to Danisco, causing the calcium to precipitate. Danisco has therefore seen a growing preference for its DVI alternative, which it said are highly active and cost effective, providing optimum culture activity to make stabilized soft cheese with smooth mouth feel and clean flavor. Nathalie Brosse, from Communications, said: "Due to ongoing development work by leading culture suppliers including Danisco, optimization of individual strains and blends has brought a new generation of highly concentrated DVI cultures with the strength to go considerably further - inoculating much more milk with much less culture. The result is a narrowing of the cost-in-use gap between BS and DVI cultures. "This is particularly true for the cheese market still using predominantly BS. North America representing around 30% of the global cheese market, the demand is fast growing in this region of the world." The culture activates itself very quickly after inoculation, providing a very short lag phase, during which minerals can be lost. As a result of the new US expansion, Danisco claimed it now has 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. Cheese types Danisco originally developed frozen cultures for making hard cheeses, but last December produced cultures for application in stabilized soft cheeses. Its new cultures for parmesan and cottage cheese are the latest culture launches, but Danisco said it will not stop there. Veau said: "Other investments are planned to reinforce our leading market position. And we have many new cultures to come." Danisco operates in more than 40 countries, supplying food ingredients, sugar and industrial bioproducts.
