Italian plant-based cheese startup Dreamfarm has announced it is expanding to Belgium, rolling out at Delhaize stores from March 14. The expansion follows the company’s “incredibly successful” launch in the Italian market.
Dreamfarm offers almond-based products that provide healthy alternatives to cheese. While many plant-based cheeses are made predominantly with coconut oil, which is high in saturated fat, Dreamfarm’s products have minimal saturated fat and a Nutriscore of A.
The company’s flagship product is a liquid-state mozzarella alternative, which is made using a proprietary processing technique and is the first plant-based mozzarella to ever achieve certified liquid status from the Italian government. Dreamfarm has also developed a plant-based cheese spread.
“After two years of testing, we are very pleased with the first products we are bringing to market,” said co-founder Mattia Sandei. “It was not easy to create healthy plant-based alternatives to two iconic Italian products while maintaining a similar texture. We achieved it thanks to fermentation, a natural process inspired by dairy cheese but applied to plant-based ingredients.”
“Incredibly positive”
After the Delhaize launch, Dreamfarm plans to approach pizzerias and restaurants that may be interested in using the plant-based cheese. Expansions to Germany and the Netherlands are also planned in the coming months.
Dreamfarm’s rapid growth has been made possible by a €5 million investment from food industry entrepreneurs Giampaolo Cagnin and Francesco Mutti, which the company secured last year. Some of the funding was used to establish a production facility, while the remainder is mostly being used to expand distribution channels within Italy and abroad.
“The response to our products in the Italian market has been incredibly positive and has energized us further to become one of the most innovative companies in this frontier sector,” said Dreamfarm CEO Giovanni Menozzi. “Given the significant size of this opportunity and the patented technology that we developed, we received a €5 million investment at a very early stage. This allowed us to build our own factory and be very ambitious from day one.”
