Deutsche Milchkontor (DMK), the leading dairy group in Germany, generating a global turnover of around 5.47 billion euros in 2021, announces the launch of a new plant-based cheese line called Velander, aimed at food service professionals.
The new line was “developed by DMK experts on the basis of decades of cheese expertise” according to DMK, and is produced at the group’s largest cheese production location where more than 3 million litres of milk are processed into cheese every day, stating that a new production area has been created at the Lower Saxony location.
Following an announcement last October, DMK introduced a line of oat-based desserts under its MILRAM brand in March of this year, entailing chocolate pudding, chocolate milk, and rice pudding. The dairy group’s new vegan cheese line as announced today, described as applicable to both hot and cold recipes, will be available from Q4 2022.
“We want to offer our customers a complete and future-proof product range,” says Ingo Müller, CEO of DMK Group. “With our vegan cheese alternative, we are now offering our customers the option of serving consumers of vegan products as well, in addition to our core range. Despite quite difficult conditions in the food market – keyword “inflation” – we have achieved a successful start with our vegan dessert line. Here we score points with the outstanding taste of the products – this is exactly where we now want to pick up in the cheese segment.”
“A plant-based cheese variant that corresponds to classic cheese in taste and texture is many times more challenging to develop than, for example, oat drinks or other plant-based segments. As experienced cheese experts, we are therefore exactly the right partner to also deliver the next generation of plant-based cheese alternatives. This clearly sets our product apart from the competition and aims to optimally serve the needs of customers. The user target group such as chefs or industrial customers do not want to forego familiar properties such as browning and melting behaviour, for example, in addition to taste aspects with the vegan cheese alternative. This is exactly where we come in with our Velander,” says Müller.
