We’ll also have our weekly update on the global dairy market with Charlie Hyland from INTL FCStone.
Italy to host World Cheese Awards 2019 as part of Bergamo FORME festival
The World Cheese Awards will visit Italy for the first time, in Bergamo, as part of the city’s annual FORME cheese festival.
The awards take place on October 18, during the FORME festival, which runs from October 17-20, 2019.
As Bergamo plays host to the international cheese community, the World Cheese Awards will shine a spotlight on Lombardy’s culinary culture, giving the region’s producers an opportunity to showcase their food and drink on a world stage. The FORME festival features tastings, panel discussions, training sessions, markets and an exhibition of all 50 Italian DOP cheeses.
Breaking records
John Farrand, managing director of the Guild of Fine Food, organisers of the World Cheese Awards, said, “The World Cheese Awards is extending its international reach year-on-year, so it's very important for us to partner with like-minded organizations that understand the power and potential of this global cheese gathering.
“Uniting with FORME feels like a very natural fit for us and we're hugely honoured to be bringing the competition to Bergamo in 2019, a beautiful city with a wealth of cheese heritage. With over 200 of the world's top cheese people set to fly in for the awards, Bergamo will become the very heart of the cheese world this October and the world will be watching as the city hosts this global celebration of cheese.
“We're anticipating yet another record breaking year, hoping to top 3,500 entries for the first time, and are looking forward to working together with the FORME team to create a lasting legacy in the region and raise awareness throughout the food and drink world.”
B2Cheese fair
Francesco Maroni, president of the Progetto Forme, said last year’s FORME, the third time the event has run, brought in more than 40,000 visitors and participants, with 12,000 kilos of cheese sold and tasted at the market.
“Without losing sight of the importance of local heritage, this year's edition will see the Italian premiere of the World Cheese Awards, the most prestigious international competition for the best cheeses in the world,” Maroni said.
“This huge event, alongside the new addition of the B2Cheese fair, will serve to promote excellence in production throughout Italy, with the aim of enhancing the reputation of our national cheeses and creating a culture of quality.”
Last year’s awards were held in Bergen, Norway in November, with a record 3,472 cheeses from 41 different countries judged in a single day.
Arla Foods Ingredients launches optimized comfort concept for infant formula
Optimized comfort is at the heart of a new whey protein-based concept for infant formula developed by Arla Foods Ingredients.
Infant formulas contain significantly more protein than human milk. Since protein is hard to digest, this can lead to gastrointestinal discomfort issues in infants, such as colic and constipation, resulting in excessive crying. Other problems include regurgitation and stool issues. However, by altering the amount and types of proteins in formula, it is possible to reduce these problems.
Arla Foods Ingredients’ new optimized comfort concept for infant formula contains alpha-lactalbumin, which is the most abundant protein in human milk. Due to its excellent amino acid composition, alpha-lactalbumin is a high-quality protein that is a key ingredient in low-protein formulas with protein levels closer to human milk.
The new concept also includes whey protein hydrolysates, which are high-quality proteins that have been broken down by enzymes, effectively meaning they have been pre-digested.
Arla Foods Ingredients is the world’s first commercial producer of alpha-lactalbumin and one of the world’s largest producers of both alpha-lactalbumin and whey protein hydrolysates. Its infant nutrition ingredients are manufactured in Denmark in a modern facility to the strictest safety and quality standards using milk that is non-GMO/GMO-free, Kosher and Halal-certified, and free of annatto.
The new optimized comfort, low protein formula concept incorporates Lacprodan ALPHA-10, a whey protein concentrate with a minimum level of 41% alpha-lactalbumin as a proportion of total protein content; and Lacprodan IF-3070, a partially hydrolysed whey protein (DH 9-15) with a mixture of small and larger peptides.
The concept product has been created to showcase potential optimized comfort applications. It contains 9.7g of protein per 100g serving and has a protein to energy ratio of 1.9g/100kcal.
Gut comfort is generally considered to be important for infant well-being and sleep, and discomfort can be emotionally and physically draining for both infants and parents. Furthermore, infant discomfort problems are the most common reason for parents to switch between formulas to find a solution to their infant’s gastrointestinal issues.
The number of global launches of infant formula products with on-pack messages relating to comfort has risen by a CAGR of 11.6% over the past five years.
Polatote and Lactote aim for better recycling
Australian packaging innovation ‘Polatote’ recently won the Australian PIDA award for the beverage section via the Australian Institute of Packaging, and now enters the Global WorldStar awards for 2019, which are to be held in Europe next year.
Polatote and its sister packaging product Lactote for milk products are being promoted by the company as the next evolution in packaging.
The systems are the result of design and testing since 2006, and are a 'one-way' system, meaning all of the used packaging can be directly recycled.
Employing two different weights of shrink film, the packaging systems maintain durability whilst being easy to open, easy to carry - with no cutting blades necessary.
Less material
Up to 30% less material is used in the production process, offering the lowest cost shrink solution on the market, a spokesperson told DairyReporter.
The system can be applied across various markets: dairy, carbonated beverages, juice, alcohol, liquid detergents and canned goods.
“Potentially, there is the opportunity through this system of taking billions of dollars of cost out of the equation,” a spokesperson for the company said.
Another part of the equation is storing and shipping product, which the Lactote system also addresses.
“We’ve also come up with a system of packing these packs onto pallets in a cube, so you've basically got a cube of milk, it's got excellent top-load performance,” he said.
“With a plastic bottle, if it's standing upright, and you put too much pressure on the top, you can crush the neck.”
The product also removes the need for secondary packaging, the spokesperson said.
“We have a tray at the bottom, and a narrower piece at the top. You can hook the tops so that they can't come out. Then just flip the top, and out it comes.”
Secondary products
As far as recycling, Lactote is aware of more than one company in Australia that can make railway sleepers from the recycled milk bottle packaging.
The sleepers have a large milk bottle component with lids and labels thrown in. The sleepers themselves are recyclable.
“By introducing this system, it can drop this back by 120,000 tons, so $3.2bn at the moment can be cut back by $500m, just by adopting this system because you use less plastic.
“The market for milk bottles around the world is about 5.4m tons of plastic. [By being able to further lightweight the current bottles] We can take 650,000 tons of plastic out of the market place by going to a system of this type.”
