Press release

With artificial preservatives falling out of favor, cheesemakers are increasingly on the lookout for benzoate-free enzymes which help to guarantee not just cheese but also whey is benzoate-free. DSM is upgrading its entire cheese enzyme portfolio in response to this need, employing innovative production technology and changing the formulation matrixes of these products to eliminate the need for benzoate-based preservation.

“Today’s cheese manufacturers face multiple challenges - to continually increase cheese quality, while optimizing whey value and producing their products in an efficient, sustainable way,” says Evandro Oliveira de Souza, Global Business Lead for Cheese at DSM Food Specialties. “High-quality, high-purity ingredients are key. At DSM, we want to continuously improve our portfolio to keep pace with the changing consumer and customer demand for better, healthier, and more sustainable food.”

The latest addition to the benzoate-free range of cheese enzymes is Accelerzyme CPG, a unique carboxypeptidase cheese ripening enzyme that accelerates balanced flavor formation in a variety of different cheese types. Accelerzyme CPG causes small peptides and amino acids in milk to release faster during the ripening process, converting these to flavor components by the added cheese cultures. This results in a faster ripening time, and a smaller environmental footprint.

Products in DSM’s portfolio of benzoate-free cheese enzymes include Maxiren XDS, a chymosin preparation with the highest-known protein specificity, which enables producers to get more from their milk and increase annual production by around 1%. Other products are Fromase, a microbial coagulant (endopeptidase) preparation, and a portfolio of lipases.