Arla gathers the dairy industry for seminar on raw milk cheese

Representatives from Danish dairies are today meeting at Steensgaard Herregård to consider ways of reviving the tradition for using raw milk cheese within the context of Nordic food traditions.

Arla has invited all Danish dairies to the seminar to debate a joint industry approach to producing world class raw milk cheeses. To meet such an ambitious goal, it will be necessary to nurture a cheese culture characterised by the enormous diversity in countries such as France. Working with raw milk means that feed and cattle breeds are of crucial importance in that the characteristics of the raw material are more pronounced in raw milk cheese. Consequently, such a step would mean an enormous change for the industry as nature, traditional skills and the partnerships between farmers and dairies would become more important.

Although Denmark and the other Nordic countries are currently producing a range of excellent dairy products, only a few of these products send a clear message about their Nordic origin. The seminar's topics, therefore, will range from how to produce cheese with unique flavours, how to tell the story of the cheeses' origin, milk quality and food safety.

The seminar is also intended to create a new business area with long term profit-potential. Although demand for premium cheeses, which are typically produced from unpasteurised milk, is growing, most current sales are of foreign cheeses. The success criteria is, therefore, to develop raw milk cheese that matches the taste requirements of the consumer.

This challenge cannot be met by one dairy company alone. It will require knowledge sharing and skills development across several sectors with considerable focus on interaction between food safety, taste and nature.

"It's clear that there's a growing demand for products with a unique taste and story," says Katrine Hvid Ellegård, New Venture Manager, Arla Foods. "With this seminar we and our colleagues in the industry are taking a first step towards creating raw milk cheese with its own identity and unique taste."

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