Fi Europe 2025: Functional cheese formats and sustainable dairy innovation from Ornua
19 Dec 2025 | Ornua
At Fi Europe 2025, Seamus Greene, ingredients managing director at Ornua, outlines the company’s latest ingredient solutions and functional cheese formats designed for performance-driven applications such as pizza, ready meals, and QSR. He discusses growing demand for customized dairy ingredients, Ornua’s progress in traceability and responsible sourcing, and how the portfolio is evolving to support both traditional dairy and hybrid or reformulated product innovation.
Fingers first reported from FI Europe 2025 in Paris.
We're here at our booth with Seamus Green, who is ingredients managing director.
Welcome to you.
Thank you.
So what new ingredients, solutions or functional cheese formats is the company highlighting at this year's event?
Yeah, our innovation portfolio is broadly based around three product categories, which is our butter fats, our high protein powders, and our cheese ingredients.
And it's a great opportunity to be here at Food Ingredients Europe to display these to our existing customers but also prospective customers over the three days.
So these, these ingredients are available across our, our value added ingredients but also our, our Kerry Gold branded product portfolio.
But as a company we have a priority focus on cheese and this year specifically with ingredients alone we've launched two new products.
One is our high protein cheese and this is a product with exceptional functionality and unique flavor taste with reduced, reduced fat content which is.
It's particularly useful in the baking and cooking industries and our second innovative cheese product is our Optimum cord, which is a specific ingredient which is used within processed cheese and that gives a very specific protein functionality and flavor to the users within that particular application.
OK it's interesting.
And er as sustainability expectations continue to rise, how is our newa strengthening traceability and responsible sourcing across its dairy supply chain?
Yeah, the sustainability, provenance, traceability really is at the core of what we do and it's a fundamental driver of the Kerrygold brand in, in all our global markets.
An example of that is our, is Kerrygold cream cheese.
We launched our product in Germany a few years ago.
It's a premium indulgent cream cheese which is made with grass-fed milk from Ireland, totally natural, no artificial ingredients and no preservatives, so.
There are new launches which are planned for products like that which will support a clear consumer need for natural unadulterated products sourced directly from our Irish farming families and created specifically from our, our genuine ingredient which is milk.
OK.
How is our adapting its ingredients portfolio to serve both traditional.
But also brands exploring hybrids or reformulated products.
Yeah, as, as our new, we are renowned, we are renowned as our with our global brand name which is called Kerrygold, and that's for our standard butter products.
But we have successfully diversified both in product range and in innovation on packaging and those products.
If you take for example.
We have launched within the last year butter with olive oil and butter with avocado oil, all which adds to both the sustainability and also the flavor components of those products as.
We've also launched a garlic and herb Kerrygold product in the US and on the back of that we've also launched a number of new sweet flavored butters in new markets in 20.
And planning to be more in 2026 in the UK, for example, we have launched maple and cinnamon butter sticks, which is actually the first sweetbreaded butter launched in the UK and we will also be launching Kerry Gold cinnamon and brown sugar in Germany and Europe.
So exciting new branding opportunities for our new and our customers in 2026.
Yeah, very exciting.
Thanks for your time today, Seamus.
Appreciate it.
