Cheese might not be a big part of South Africa’s food heritage, but the country’s consumers are eating more than ever before. The processed cheese market, to illustrate, grew by almost 30% between 2019 and 2023, and is expected to continue to grow at a similar rate between now and 2028.
Although consumption remains a fraction of what it is in Europe, processed cheese in South Africa is here to stay, and there are several reasons why. Processed cheese is extremely versatile and can be formulated to provide a range of flavours, textures, and functional properties, to meet the versatility demanded by consumer tastes today. The shelf-life of processed cheese can also be extended compared to natural cheeses, providing food manufacturers with a product that offers longevity at an affordable cost.
Addressing affordability
Affordability is especially important in South Africa, with consumers increasingly having to dig deeper into their pockets to afford the same essential household food items at the store. The average cost of the household food basket is R5,277.30 — a slight decrease (-0.9%) from January. However, this represents an annual increase of R348,96 (7,1%) from the R4,928.34 total that was recorded in February 2023. The challenge for manufacturers is to formulate successfully, which involves not only keeping their manufacturing costs low, but also delivering consumer-preferred dairy and non-dairy cheese products at the right price point.
Formulating for success
Consumers’ love of cheese can be attributed to its indulgent taste and nutritional profile, effectively combining fat, protein and sugars, pressing a lot of sensory buttons, and offering a range of different textures like firmness, creaminess, crumbliness or stretch.
“Reformulating nutritional properties is a key part of meeting consumer demands. Processed cheese can be reformulated to provide low-sodium, low-fat, fortified with vitamins and minerals, and dairy-free varieties, meeting a wide range of consumer needs”
The use of non-dairy ingredients in the formulation of processed cheese is crucial, too. This is because it allows manufacturers to cater for consumer preferences such as dairy-free, non-fat and vegan, while also combining functional properties pertinent to its manufacture that include lower and more stable ingredient costs compared to their dairybased equivalents.
Melt and stretch
Natural cheeses like mozzarella get their melting and stretching tendencies from a combination of milk fat and the casein protein. Driven in part by the rise in vegan diets, a lot of research has gone into finding plant-based ingredients that help to mimic these behaviours. This has led to the development of gelling starches with a soft set and thermoreversibility. These can be used to partially replace milkbased ingredients, or even combine with plant-based oil and protein sources to make vegan cheese alternatives
Creaminess
Cream cheese gets its indulgent texture by processing mixtures which contain a high proportion of natural cheese. This proportion can be lowered significantly by including process tolerant, modified starches which dramatically reduce the overall cost of ingredients. Interestingly, the lower protein content of such formulations can eliminate the need for expensive melting salts.
Firmness and grating
Consumers love firm textured block cheese, grating it into sandwiches and sauces or using in a host of savoury dishes. Using the right gel forming starch ingredients can significantly reduce the overall cost of a formulation, replacing natural cheese and skimmed milk powder. This does come at the expense of its melt-ability, but with no loss of taste or texture, if the right balance of flavourings is applied.
Satisfaction
Advancements in starch technology have made it possible to replace dairy ingredients with less expensive and more sustainable plant-based alternatives, that don’t significantly change the nutritional profile of the end-product. With many consumers make purchasing decisions based on protein content there are now a growing number of plant-based proteins on the market that can be used to formulate cheese — many of these coming from beans and pulses.
Vegan labelling
Vegan cheese is hugely popular elsewhere in the world and is starting to gain a foothold in South Africa. The country’s plant-based dairy market grew by 83.9% from 2019 to 2023, demonstrating the huge potential for manufacturers in this area. Once again starch plays a key role in reformulating vegan cheese, and one interesting development is the emergence of functional native starches that are replacing the modified starches in earlier iterations. This can help manufacturers achieve a clean label that appeals to the type of consumer this kind of product attracts. Hybrid products that combine both dairy and plant-based ingredients are also gaining popularity, catering to the growing flexitarian consumer base who seek to reduce, but not eliminate, their dairy consumption.
Partnership for formulation success
There are scores of different starches available, and almost unlimited permutations in the combinations of ingredients that can be used for formulating processed cheese and vegan cheese products. Partnering with an ingredient supplier ensures manufacturers have access to the latest expertise in the field and a wide range of ingredients and product types, in order to develop products that appeal to today’s consumer.
Source: F&B Reporter June 2024
About the author: Louisa Parrillo is Strategic Marketing Lead, Dairy & Alternatives, Emerging Markets, at Ingredion.
