Can you make cheese without milk?

2023-05-22 22:34:39

Cheese is a food that has great importance for gastronomic culture. We cannot imagine our dishes without the flavors, smells and textures that different cheeses give them.

More than 38 different types of these cheeses are produced in Mexico: some of the best known are panela cheese, asadero, adobera and Chihuahua. Each one has characteristics that make them unique.

Mexicans prefer to consume fresh cheeses and pasta filata with soft textures and flavors over mature cheeses with intense flavors.

Thanks to the versatility of the product and the great variety of presentations, in Mexico cheese is consumed in 97% of homes.

How important is cheese production in Mexico?

A Mexican consumes from 2 to 6 kilograms of cheese per year and BEWARE>> It allocates more than 20% of its income to buy dairy products in various presentations!!!!. Although it is a significant figure, it is not a match for the more than 37 kilograms that the Greeks consume per year.

To satisfy the demand for cheese, Mexican farmers produced more than 13,000 million liters of milk in 2022 alone. With this production, up to 440,000 tons of different varieties of cheese have been obtained per year.

The size of dairy agro-industries in Mexico represents the fourth productive activity within the food sector. This includes all links in the milk sector. This activity generates more than 200,000 direct jobs.

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What is an analog cheese?

An analogous cheese is a product that substitutes one or several components of milk with others of vegetable origin. In essence, it is a fat-in-water emulsion where proteins are also used as stabilizers.

Analog cheeses have characteristics that are very similar to natural cheeses, such as flavor, texture and aroma, as well as the ability to melt when subjected to high temperatures.

Due to their manufacturing process, these products can be stored for a long period of time, in addition to preserving their functional properties without altering. This makes it possible to sell a larger quantity of product at a very low price compared to the production prices of natural cheeses.

Some of the advantages that these products present to compete against natural cheeses are:

1. Do not depend on the production of fresh milk.
2. Present a constant quality throughout the year.
3. No loss of performance.
4. Does not require maturation processes.

However, analog cheeses cannot compete with the nutritional contribution offered by natural cheeses. It is impossible to emulate the quality of the components of natural cheeses (proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and fat). And that is one of the reasons for the rejection of analogous cheeses by informed consumers.

The challenge of dairy industries in Mexico

After the economic problems in the world generated by the covid-19 pandemic and the inflation derived from conflicts between Russia and Ukraine, consumers have begun to look for products that are more accessible to their pockets. Regardless of its quality. And of course, analog cheeses have gained ground.

The problem is that the vast majority of the population is unaware of the varieties of natural cheese that are produced. Therefore, they are also unaware of the characteristics that make them unique. And this makes it very difficult for the standard consumer to identify the differences between a natural cheese and another analogue.

For the industry, it is a major challenge to make enough information available to consumers to make informed decisions.

Jason Jarrach /Unspalsh, CC BY-NC

One case in which analog cheeses are widely used is in the pizza making. In this case, the final consumer prefers a cheap product and not one that is of better quality but at a higher price. Therefore, its use has been extended to other fast food products.

In recent years, we have detected its use in products and businesses such as taquerias, Italian food businesses, school canteens, street food stalls, and in all kinds of restaurants where these products help lower costs and increase profit margins.

For this reason, in recent years the economic situation has not been easy for small and medium-sized cheese-producing companies, which face many challenges, such as the low yields obtained in cheese production.

To all this we must add the difficulties encountered in the production of the main material for cheese, which is milk. This has increased its cost due to the increase in fodder and has led the producers themselves to seek alternatives for production. Where? Precisely in analogous and extended cheeses.

It is indisputable that, these days, the high price of cheese and milk production leaves traditional agro-industries at a disadvantage, which find it difficult to compete against producers of similar cheeses. Only having well-informed consumers aware of nutritional differences can turn the tables.