WhiteWhey introduced as alternative to annatto

Chr Hansen, a global bioscience company that develops natural ingredients, has introduced a new cheese colouring product that enables producers of cheddar and gouda cheese to get more value from their whey while maintaining an aesthetically-pleasing appearance of their cheese products.

Whey – the liquid remaining after milk has been coagulated and drained – is a by-product of cheesemaking, and has several commercial uses. Dairy companies process the whey and sell it to other food producers who use whey powder as an additive in many processed foods including baby food, bread, crackers, ice cream and yogurt.

However, when producing cheese types such as cheddar and gouda, the cheese makers add colour – traditionally annatto colour – to give the cheese the shade that consumers expect from a cheddar or gouda cheese. Inevitably, however, the colour transfers to the whey, colouring it yellow. This is an issue because the food industry requires white whey for their food products.

As a result, Chr. Hansen has developed WhiteWhey, a new colour ingredient that can be used as an alternative to annatto.

Chr. Hansen’s Thomas Christensen, industry product manager, natural colours division, says, “By replacing annatto with the beta-carotene based WhiteWhey colours, cheese producers will experience an 85-95% reduction in colour transfer to the whey. The cheese will maintain the same delicious yellow to red shades, as our new WhiteWhey colours offers a 1:1 colour match compared to annatto-based solutions.”