Choose the right coagulant and reduce your carbon footprint in cheese production

When switching to Chr. Hansen’s coagulant CHY-MAX® M, cheese producers can significantly cut CO2 emissions and thereby reduce their environmental impact.

Collectively, dairies around the world produce more than 20,000,000 tons of cheese a year (source: The U.S. Dairy Export Council). If all cheese makers converted to using CHY-MAX^® M as their cheese coagulant, the result would be a total CO2 reduction of at least 1,250,000 tons of CO₂, equaling the yearly greenhouse gas emissions from more than 83,000 Western European households. Or a Chrysler Voyager driving 150,000 times around the earth.

Increased yield is the reason why
The reduced carbon footprint is a production benefit which comes directly from the fact that using CHY-MAX^® M means increased cheese yield. Cheese makers will simply use less milk to produce the same amount of cheese if they use CHY-MAX^® M instead of any other type of coagulant. Exactly how big a yield increase and C02 reduction depends on the type of cheese.

To be specific, going from CHY-MAX^® or another first generation fermentation-produced chymosin (FPC) to CHY-MAX^® M will give a 22-54 kg of CO₂ per ton of cheese reduction of the carbon footprint due to the proven yield increase. The shift from a microbial coagulant will save 39-146 kg of CO₂ per ton of cheese, while moving from animal rennet to CHY-MAX^® M will cut CO₂ emissions by 38-70 kg per ton of cheese. Today, approx. 20% of all cheese is produced with animal rennet, 30% with microbial coagulant and 50% with FPC.

The mozzarella cheese example
For instance, an average producer of mozzarella cheese producing 20,000 tons of cheese per year who switches to CHY-MAX^® M could save 1,200-1,500 tons of CO₂ each year depending on the type of coagulant the producer uses today. This amount of CO₂ equals the yearly CO₂ emissions by 80-100 average Western European households. Or a Chrysler Voyager driving 180 times around the earth.

“More and more customers are working with determination to reduce the carbon footprint of their production process. As a global ingredient supplier we must take this opportunity to work together with the industry in achieving this ambitious and important goal. With CHY-MAX^® M we are proud to be able to offer them the right coagulant to do so,” says Chr. Hansen’s Rolando Saltini, Coagulants Marketing Manager. “We have a ‘CO₂ calculator’ available for dairy customers who wish to get an overview of CO₂ emissions associated with producing cheese with the different types of coagulants.”

Improving sustainability
“Assisting our customers in reaching their sustainability targets merely by choosing more sophisticated ingredients in their food production makes really good sense for us,” comments Henriette Oellgaard, Senior Manager in Chr. Hansen’s Corporate Social Responsibility department. “CHY-MAX^® M is not alone in offering functionality which is beneficial not only for the food product but also for the environment. We have numerous ingredient and technology solutions that create business value for our customers while improving sustainability across the food production value chain.”