Cheese

Troubleshooting, Product Development, Education And More

With more than 200 combined years of experience, CDR’s Cheese Industry and Applications Staff work to build a sustainable competitive advantage for the domestic cheese industry through leadership in innovative strategic research, technology, product development, outreach, and continuing education.

From Cheddar to Sweet Swiss, Queso Fresco to Juustoleipä, bloomy to surface ripened cheeses, CDR’s licensed cheesemakers and dairy researchers serve as a technical resource in the development, troubleshooting, and utilization of cheese products.

Services

Our staff provides a wide array of services to the cheese industry. It may be as simple as providing an expert opinion to a routine question, or it may involve the need to carry out cheesemaking trials. Our staff interact with our partners on a daily basis to determine their goals and objectives when we set-up, design, and carry out cheese trials. Contracted trials may involve testing ingredients, developing new cheeses, optimizing flavor and performance in existing cheeses, or simply finding answers to your questions. We also provide troubleshooting assistance for U.S. companies who are looking for expert assistance in regards to their product defects or shortcomings.

Affinage Services

CDR has 10 state-of-the-art Air Quality Process (AQP) ripening rooms dedicated to cave-aged cheeses. With precision humidity, temperature, and air flow control, these rooms can age bloomy rind cheese, Blue cheese, hard & soft smeared cheese, natural/mixed mold cheese, Parmesan, Swiss, and more. As part of the R&D process, clients can make and age these varieties at CDR. Additionally, clients have the option of making cheese elsewhere, and sending the cheese to CDR for affinage. Due to the flexibility of this system (depending on room availability), this arrangement is ideal for testing several affinage procedures on the same base cheese.

If you have any questions about CDR’s affinage services, or if you would like any assistance with your own affinage equipment/procedure, please reach out to Ben Ullerup Mathers.

Sensory and Functionality

Our staff may be able to assist you in other areas. We have a full application kitchen with cooking options similar to restaurants large and small. This allows us to evaluate a how cheese tastes and functions in various food applications. Additionally, we have analysts who can conduct compositional, chemical, microbiological and functional testing. In addition to basic compositional, chemical and microbiological testing we offer functionality testing through our applications kitchen as well as cheese grading, screening and descriptive analysis through our sensory program. Whether you are looking to optimize flavor and performance or simply find an answer to a burning question, the CDR cheese group is available to help.

Cheese Farm to Fork

Consumers have shown a greater interest in understanding where their food comes from and how it is manufactured. To aid in consumer education efforts, CDR has created a visual illustrating the path cheese typically takes as it moves from Farm to Fork.