The way cheese is purchased and consumed has changed. Alongside whole cheeses and larger formats, retail shelves now offer an increasingly wide range of small wedges, individual portions, sliced cheeses and ready-to-eat formats. This evolution reflects consumers' demand for convenience, variety and the opportunity to enjoy different types of cheese without having to purchase large quantities.

For the cheese industry, this shift has implications that go far beyond packaging format. When a single cheese has to be divided into numerous portions or undergo industrial slicing, cutting becomes a key factor in the quality and presentation of the final product. In this context, the coating must not only perform as intended on the cheese, but also meet the mechanical demands of processing.

Industrial Cutting: A New Requirement for Cheese Coatings

Cheese coatings are designed to meet the product's needs throughout manufacture, ripening and storage. However, the growth of portioned formats introduces an additional variable: how the film behaves as the blade passes through the cheese. The greater the number of cuts, the more important it becomes for the coating to behave consistently and in a controlled manner.

Excessive stiffness or resistance to breakage can make it difficult for the film to separate cleanly. During cutting, the coating may deform or be dragged by the blade into the cheese, leaving coating residues on the cut surface, less defined edges or irregular shapes. These effects are particularly noticeable in small wedges and slices, where the cut surface has a significant impact on the appearance of the product presented to the consumer.

Stabilising the Cutting Process: Adapting the Coating's Mechanical Properties

Stabilising the cutting process means considering the coating as an integral part of portioning. It is not simply a matter of increasing or reducing its resistance: the coating must retain its properties throughout the cheese's lifecycle while also performing appropriately during cutting, allowing the film to break cleanly and in a controlled manner.

Properties such as stiffness, flexibility and resistance to breakage influence how the film behaves as the blade passes through it. A coating tailored to the process should allow the film to break cleanly and in a controlled manner, reducing coating drag and helping the cut surface retain a uniform appearance. Based on this approach, DOMCA has developed specific solutions for different types of industrial cutting, taking into account both the process and the final product format.

COUPE R: Coatings Designed for Wedges and Small Portions

The COUPE R range has been developed for cheeses intended to be cut into wedges and small-format portions. As the size of the retail portion decreases, each cheese requires a greater number of cuts, making the coating's behaviour during portioning increasingly important.

COUPE R features lower stiffness, with resistance to breakage tailored to the cutting process, helping the film separate in a more controlled manner as the blade passes through it. This helps minimise coating drag into the cheese and reduce irregularities along the edges of the portions. The aim is for the coating to perform effectively from application through to an increasingly important final processing stage: producing the required retail format.

COUPE F: Coatings Developed for Sliced Cheese

Industrial slicing presents a different scenario. In this case, the cheese undergoes a continuous sequence of thin, repeated cuts, so any undesirable interaction between the blade and the film can become repeatedly visible throughout the process.

For these applications, DOMCA has developed COUPE F, specifically designed for cheeses intended for slicing. Its formulation tailors the coating's mechanical properties to this type of cutting, promoting clean, controlled separation of the film and reducing coating drag into the cheese. This helps maintain a more uniform appearance of the slices and ensures that the coating is suited to the actual conditions of industrial processing.

Coatings That Evolve with New Cheese Formats

Smaller wedges, individual portions and sliced products are part of an evolving way of consuming cheese, in which convenience and variety are increasingly important. For the industry, this evolution means considering the product as a whole: from manufacture and ripening through to the cutting, presentation and packaging operations that ultimately determine how it reaches the market.

At DOMCA, we develop coatings with both the characteristics of the cheese and the requirements of the production process in mind. The COUPE R and COUPE F ranges reflect this approach, offering solutions specifically tailored to wedge portioning and industrial slicing, respectively. As consumption formats evolve, the technologies used to produce them consistently must evolve too.

Contact the DOMCA team to discuss the specific requirements of your product and process.

Put yourself in contact the team from DOMCA to assess the specific requirements of your product and process.

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