A closer look

The UK cheese market is now worth £1.7 billion per annum and, despite being a very mature product that’s already consumed in 98 per cent of UK homes, its growth shows little sign of slowing. The whole category is being driven forward by a wide range of domestic manufacturers producing quality cheese that ranks amongst the best in the world.

Joseph Heler Cheese, based in the heart of rural Cheshire, Northern England, is a cheese producer that’s amongst the most innovative and widely respected within the tight-knit dairy industry. The family-owned firm are the UK’s largest independent regional cheese producer, supplying a number of major supermarkets and many ingredients buyers, whilst still retaining their Joseph Heler brands. The company also works with companies such as Somerdale International Ltd and Murray Vernon, which exports its products to the rest of Europe.

The Chairman’s initial decision in 1957 to diversify his farm and start making cheese is the starting point for a pioneering trend that continues today, illustrated by such innovative developments as reduced sodium and low-fat cheese ranges.

The company is still based on the same site where they began, but have expanded year-on-year and now produce 14,000 tonnes of cheese per annum and use 140 million litres of milk in the process. The history of cheese making dates back to biblical times and its processes have changed little in that time. This is something that Jonathan Cope, Commercial Manager at Joseph Heler, likes to keep in perspective, as he said: “We’re still very much dependent on the quality of our milk supply and to an extent the quality of the Cheshire grassland that helps shape the character of that milk. A strong supply chain is the bedrock of this business; we use more than 140,000,000 litres of milk a year from a network of local suppliers and our own herd. Staying on the same site has been integral to our success.”

“Our roots lie in artisan cheese production, and we’ve used these skills to develop a very wide ranging stock of cheese.” explained Jonathan. The company’s traditional cheese making methods are balanced with environmental innovations such as a Whey processing plant that eliminates all waste from the cheese making process.

The company has recently invested heavily in new product development (NPD), as Jonathan explained: “We’ve spent a lot of money on NPD, both in terms of improving our range but also developing the low-fat, reduced-sodium lines and the facilities that enable food technologists to visit and test these ingredients within their products.”

As well as employing the benefits of a dedicated NPD team, the company retains many staff members whose expertise stretches back more than 30 years. Even the Chairman, Joseph Heler, is still active in grading cheese every Monday morning.

Innovation has been at the forefront of the company’s growth in recent years, especially with the UK’s first natural heat stable British cheese range earlier this year. This is a pioneering product that won’t melt away when cooked under high temperature. “Such products are fuelling our growth. We have some of the most experienced staff in the dairy industry and that expertise combines wonderfully with our craftsmanship and heritage,” explained Jonathan.

Working with innovators

The New Product Innovation Centre is a critical facility for cheese and dairy innovation. But what are the facilities like and what drives the development? Mandy Drabwell spoke to Andrew Toward, New Product Development Manager, Joseph-Heler Cheese, to find out.

Seven years ago Joseph-Heler realised that new product development (NPD) work was becoming an important addition to traditional cheese manufacturing, particularly in the emerging field of prepared meals. Rather than outsource NPD efforts, Joseph-Heler, based in Cheshire, North England, decided to develop its own centre. Andrew Toward explains why: “The company identified that more and more cheese would be needed in the ready-meal industry. Therefore it was important to work directly with manufacturers to discover their exact requirements of cheese properties, quantities, recipes etc.” In this way, the company would know what would suit ready- meal manufacturers best and, thus, create their ideal cheese.

However, as Toward explains, “process development is slow, with much trial and error and therefore very costly. For this reason we regularly present new ideas to customers to ensure there is potential demand in the marketplace to justify the ongoing investment.”

So who are Joseph-Heler’s customers? “We produce cheese for both consumers, such as our range of regional cheeses including Cheddar and Caerphilly, and also ready meal sandwich and pizza manufacturers. Therefore our customers are large retailers, such as Tesco [a major UK supermarket] and a range of food manufacturers.”

“We produce a wide range of cheeses as ingredients” continues Toward “for example: low fat and reduced sodium; functional cheese such as omega and probiotic cheese; and English made continentals such as Gruyere, Provolone, Italian and Greek style. Benefits to manufacturers of using English-made continental cheeses are that they are produced using pasteurised milk and have high microbiological quality and regular block sizes and shapes. They are also more economical than their continental cousins.”

Joseph-Heler describes the New Product Innovation Centre as a centre of excellence for cheese and dairy innovation. Toward explains why: “We are one of the first centres to connect the source of milk (i.e the cow) to the finished product, all on one site. The centre runs cheese workshops that take groups of four (often as part of a new employee’s induction process at a manufacturing company) through the entire cheese-making process on either a pilot plant or a bench-top scale. Vistors may soon be able to witness milking of one of the Helers’s 400 strong herd of pedigree Holsteins cows as part of the course!” All the necessary equipment for cheese production is utilised – “cheese vats, tables, mills and pasteurisers – but on a small scale, which enables individuals to produce a complete finished product in one go. This, of course, is not possible in the usual large scale facilities” states Toward.

The Innovation centre caters for various scales of production. “The smallest and cheapest production scale utilises 20 litre vats and is produced in the development kitchen. All the necessary cheese making equipment is available for a full scale production trial using two tonne vats. This is the ideal scale to try a new product out, but is expensive and requires a huge investment. In between is a medium scale batch, which makes between 400 and 1000 litres and is produced adjacent to the production area.”

Joseph-Heler processes hard and semi-hard cheeses, both for consumers as well as food manufactures utilising cheese as an ingredient for their products. A recent innovation at Joseph-Heler has been a natural heat-stable cheese that retains its shape when cooked. Toward gave some insight into the creation of the new cheese: “The new natural (i.e. not processed) heat-stable cheese began life with a previous NPD (New Product Development) colleague but did not reach its full potential and, consequently, was not really taken up. More recently, however, the product was re-addressed: the recipe was looked at and refined and potential customers were identified as a result of the properties and characteristics of the cheese. The cheese is currently undergoing new recipe trials at Yale College in Wrexham, UK by development chefs. They are studying its properties and performance criteria and utilising it in recipes for the college restaurant.”

A combination of further trials and recipe work is giving the sales team the necessary tools to take the product to the market place.

Joseph-Heler’s heat-stable cheese is a milestone in using cheese as an ingredient; breaking the mould of usual product behaviour. “Usually” Toward explains “when cheese is cooked, it just melts and falls apart. The benefit of the new heat stable cheese is that it retains its shape when heated, instead of melting away. In fact, it behaves in a similar way to meat when cooked, which is why kebab manufacturers were identified as a good potential user of the product.”

As mentioned, the heat-stable cheese was the result of an in-house vision. However, this is only one path of New Product Development at Joseph-Heler. “New innovations are created from one of two starting points” says Toward; “the NPD team or the customer. Sometimes a product concept is developed internally (as with the heat stable cheese) and is then passed on to the Sales Executives to see who would become a potential sponsor. Usually, however, customers will approach us to help develop or adapt a cheese for a specific application.” Toward cites the UK Food Standard Agency’s public health campaign as a reason for action on behalf of their customers. “Lots of companies have addressed the ongoing health/obesity concern by reformulating recipes to decrease amounts of fat, sugar and salt in prepared food.” This is not, however, a straight-forward task: “In addition to being a cheap, flavour enhancing substance, salt has an important functional role in the cheese production process. It has a highly preservative effect as it kills bacteria (both functional and spoilage) and, thus, inhibits fermentation. This means that decreasing salt levels in cheese is by no means a simple task!”

Before moving to Joseph-Heler, Andrew Toward worked for Glanbia in a variety of operational and NPD and has more than 24 years of food technology experience in the cheese industry. What has been the most significant development in cheese production technology in that period?

“An essential part of cheesemaking is the role of the starter. It is responsible for the production of lactic acid from the milk’s sugar, lactose, and the formation and development of flavour. Recipes were often handed from father to son with no one really knowing the exact organisms responsible. Since then, however, the important organisms within the mixed starters have been identified and refined to specific cultures – this array allows us to make cheese with those favourite features much more reliably. The other is the development of low fat cheese where, instead of 34%, we get down to less than 3%. There is no confusing a low fat cheese with a full fat version on a cheese board, but when it is combined with other ingredients in a recipe, dish or sandwich 3% delivers cheese without the fat burden.”

As cheese production methods remain largely unchanged, manufacturers must look elsewhere to promote themselves. Toward explains that the company’s General Manager, Mark Beavon, is Head of the Dairy Group sector of the Northwest Food Alliance.