New Cheese Coating Supply Now Available

By: Bill Rufenacht | Technical Specialist, Dairy Connection Inc.

If you use cheese-coating as part of your process, you may be aware that it has been a challenge in recent years to source a high-quality, consistently available cheese coating supply that arrives with an acceptable Best Use By date. Our original supplier imported infrequently enough to make usable shelf life unlikely. Since trans-Atlantic shipping was via freighter, it was common for product to be delayed even longer during transit. Supply chain and associated port delays during COVID complicated things further. As a result, we were on the hunt for a solution that would better serve our customers.

A recent fortunate set of circumstances put us in contact with a distributor located in South America that had a cheese coating supplier with whom they were satisfied. This connection led to Dairy Connection reaching out to CIP, a cheese coating producer based in Italy. CIP was willing to supply what we requested, offering to match product characteristics and performance per our specifications. CIP is unique in that they are very flexible, and their coatings are made-to-order. It seemed like CIP could be an excellent solution.

An initial set of samples included a yellow coating with natamycin (mold inhibitor) and a natural/transparent coating with no mold inhibitor. Both samples were manufactured to mirror the coatings we had previously stocked. CIP was able to match the color, viscosity, and natamycin levels of our previous supplier's products. According to customer reports from our first trials, CIP products perform in a very similar fashion to our previous supply of cheese coating. The customers that volunteered to trial the product provided unanimous positive reviews. The favorable feedback was enough for us to order a pallet of each product and arrange to have it shipped to us quickly via air.

The CIP cheese coating has just arrived to our facility and is now available in both 60KG drums as well as one-gallon pails, and in either natural/transparent without natamycin or yellow with natamycin. At the time of arrival, the Best Use By date is out approximately nine months. Assuming our customers’ experience continues to reflect that of those who trialed the CIP coating, our search for a reliable, quality solution has been successful.

Please contact our Customer Service or Technical Service team if you have any questions about these products.