Monday, April 25, 2022

Guelph researcher develops ersatz cheese

Plant-based cheese that is more nutritious and better suited for a variety of cooking applications than many other cheese substitutes is poised to emerge from labs at the University of Guelph into commercial production.

“This is a new plant-based cheese. A lot of other products don’t stretch or melt, or have [milk-based cheese’s] high nutritional value. We’re using the fundamental knowledge that we have about plant-protein ingredients to create something that has the desired texture and taste,” said researcher Stacie Dobson, a Ph.D. student in food science at Guelph.


Advising Dobson in her research is Alejandro Marangoni, Canada Research Chair and professor of food, health and aging in Guelph’s food science department.


“The work that Dobson and the rest of us are doing here in the lab is to improve on the nutritional properties, increasing protein content, increasing micro-nutrient content as well as improving the functionality of the product,” Marangoni told CBC reporter Andrew Coppolino.


 Daiya, a Vancouver-based manufacturer of dairy-free foods, and a partial funder of Dobson and Marangoni’s research, will use their technology and scientific developments in the manufacture of plant-based foods.