Chr. Hansen Launches New Preservatives-Free Animal Rennet Range

08 Oct 2014 --- As consumers all over the world are continuously asking for removal of all unnecessary preservatives from foods, Chr. Hansen has upgraded its NATUREN animal rennet product portfolio with completely new product offerings.

The new range includes products with no benzoate added, together with a rich variety of different concentration (strength), composition (chymosin and pepsin ratios) and packaging sizes.

In the last decades, the use of animal rennet has declined as more and more cheese producers have converted to fermentation produced chymosin (FPC) coagulants such as for instance CHY-MAX M coagulants, but about 20% of the world’s cheese produced is still produced with traditional animal rennet.

Over the coming years volumes are expected to stay relatively stable as a big part of this segment is driven by Italian DOP cheeses, like Parmigiano Reggiano, and French AOC cheeses like Comté, where the use of animal rennet is legally required.

“With this upgrade we would like to help our customers meet consumers’ requests for removing all preservatives from cheese. The new NATUREN animal rennet range has been designed to match the latest consumer trends in the most traditional cheese market segment, and we have improved our product offering to match the needs of all animal rennet users,” explains Michael Fooken Jensen, Global Marketing Manager, Cheese, Chr. Hansen.

The NATUREN animal rennet range is produced at Chr. Hansen’s plant in Graasten, Denmark, which has been accredited with several quality certifications (see below).

According to Klaus Damgaard, Production Manager, Chr. Hansen, “the NATUREN non-Benzoate products are completely safe, if stored and transported according to the recommended conditions. When kept refrigerated, we can guarantee up to one year of shelf life without any preservatives. This is only possible thanks to the modern technologies at our state-of-the-art production site which guarantee high hygienic and quality standards and make preservatives obsolete.”

Animal rennet has been used in cheese making since the first cheese was produced. Chr. Hansen has a very long history as an animal rennet producer, having sold the first standardized NATUREN product in 1874.

“After 140 years in the business animal rennet is still a very interesting market segment to Chr. Hansen,” concludes Michael Fooken Jensen. ”With continuous innovation also in this segment, we would like to remain the first supplier of choice for users of animal rennet.”