Guest Columns

Perspective:
Industry Issues

Can’t stop the cheese

Edward Zimmerman

Edward Zimmerman is president of The Food Connector, a sales and marketing company focused on the needs of food manufacturers and distributors. He contributes this column exclusively for Cheese Market News®.

Cheese consumption in the United States continues to grow. The latest stats indicate per capita cheese consumption hitting record highs again. Over the past 10 years, the industry has seen growth from 35.6 annual pounds per person to 40.3 pounds.

Outside of the data, a rational person would hypothesis that cheese consumption would be falling based on three assumptions: the rise of plant-based alternatives, concern about the environment/treatment of animals and overall “health” concerns. Not that these concerns would tank demand, more that these factors would slow growth. So, what explains the continued increases?

The rise of plant-based alternatives

Ten years ago, a few “alt-cheese” brands were emerging, especially in retail. For people with allergies, this made total sense. Someone in my household has an allergy to dairy, so I have seen this up close and personal. I’ve also tried many of these brands … more on that ahead. Americans are more adventurous eaters than a generation ago and seek alternative products, particularly ones that have perceived health benefits or claim to lower weight.

The alt-dairy aisle has exploded in recent years with dozens of brands created from soy, coconut, almonds, cashews and oats. Yes, there has been growth, but more lately at the expense of other alt-dairy products. Surveys of younger Americans report high interest in these products, but the dairy cheese consumption data doesn’t bear it out.

Plant-based cheese at foodservice scores even lower. Pizza, always the No. 1 driver of cheese consumption, finds that many of the country’s 78,000 pizzerias offer alt-cheese, but the consumption numbers remain low.

• Environmental/animal treatment concerns

Dairy farmers love their cows. People I know outside of our industry say this to me sometimes, “I can’t eat dairy because farmers abuse their cows.” They state it as fact because the propaganda on the other side is strong. My retort often is, “Do you see business owners abusing their employees? No, because their productivity would go down.” Same with dairy farmers — abused cows would be less productive, so why would a business owner intentionally do something that makes less money?

Occasionally, stories or videos arise of abuse, beatings or poor conditions. When these images surface, the propagandists offer them as normal, rather than the exception. To be clear, there are bad dairy farmers. There are bad police, plumbers and plasterers. But the vast majority of people in these professions are good. Dairy farmers love their cows.

On environmental concerns, it is true that cows create methane. So do humans. There is no free lunch. Almonds take too much water, oats have to be trucked great distance, and since they are so light, it takes many truckloads to keep the factories going. Growing soy is water-intensive as are cashews. This is not to minimize that cows have an impact on the environment — they do. The fully laid-in costs to feed billions of people is high, but this is the planet we inhabit.

A recent study of alt-meat products found that the impact on the environment was 25 times that of raising beef. People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

• Health concerns

Back in the 1970s, the message from the government and medical practitioners was that butter is terrible for your health. Fats cause heart disease and people should switch to margarine. According to Harvard Health Publications: “Then the hazards of margarine came to light … margarines had high levels of trans fats that packed a double whammy for heart disease by raising levels of LDL (bad cholesterol) and lowering levels of HDL (good cholesterol).”

Cheese comes under scrutiny in similar fashion. Critics say cheese has too much fat, salt, etc. The reality is that careful studies of the nutritional values of dairy cheese versus alt-cheese show a superior finding for dairy-based cheese. Consumers are beginning to see for themselves that many alt-cheese products are proteins stuck together with gums and starch. The bottom line is that these non-dairy cheese items aren’t very healthy after all.

A recent article in Inverse Magazine said, “People who buy vegan cheese may expect it to be as nutritious as dairy cheese. But because many manufacturers are focused on making the cheese taste, look and even melt like dairy cheese, this is rarely the case. The main ingredients in many vegan kinds of cheese are starch and vegetable oils. Starch and oil may give vegan cheeses their texture, but they are of little nutritional value. The vegetable oils in vegan cheese are even worse. Coconut oil is composed almost entirely of saturated fats.

Some types of saturated fat raise blood levels of ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol, which can increase the risk of heart disease.”

• A note on variety

The vast majority of non-dairy cheeses are composed of three varieties: Cheddar, Mozzarella and Feta. Americans have long ago diversified into craving specialty cheeses. A recent article in Dairy Processing Magazine found, “More and more consumers are looking for unique cheeses that are made using traditional, natural methods.”

Limited variety on alt-cheese will hurt demand over time.

• The bottom line

People are eating more cheese because it’s delicious, nutritious and satisfies the craving. In addition, when compared to the cost of other proteins — like beef, pork and chicken— it costs less, so it’s a great value. Kids love cheese, it travels well and is amazingly versatile.

Demand tempered by plant-based competition, animal welfare, environmental concerns and perceived health are all valid concerns to the continuing growth of the cheese industry. Like any producer, we have to continue to innovate and delight our customers. Ignoring threats is short-sighted; but living in fear that our industry is becoming irrelevant also misses the mark.

Readers of this publication know that our customers love cheese. We dedicate our livelihoods to cheese and dairy products because we believe in them. As you go through life and hear negativity about our beloved cheese, just know that we have it right.

CMN

The views expressed by CMN’s guest columnists are their own opinions and do not necessarily reflect those of Cheese Market News®.

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