Future trends in cheesemaking

Global trends towards more convenience foods have already influenced the variety of forms of cheese we can buy in supermarkets, such as grated, presliced and cubed cheese, and this is likely to increase. Here, Miel Meyer discusses how future trends may impact on the traditional Gouda cheese production in his business.

Miel Meyer (Meyer Gouda Cheese
I think the product itself won’t change, and we’re not too keen to change that either, but I think the big thing, the way the world is heading, is prepackaging – so grated cheese, presliced cheese, cubed cheese.

You’re not seeing huge a lot of it but you are seeing it coming in the supermarkets. My recent trip to Holland, you saw a lot of it. So cubed cheese – so in summer you want people having a wine and cheese, they’re just going to rip open a bag and out comes all the cubes. We have done that already in a few select supermarkets, and I think you’re going to see a lot more of that in the market rather than say the flavour changes. You know, we can try a new flavour and see how it goes, but I think you’re going to see the biggest advances in the prepackaged technology and the way things are presented.

The big thing for us and something my father said to me when I first took over is, “Make sure you just focus on the quality of the cheese.” And I think that’s something that’s never going to change with us. We’re so small that it’s hugely important that we maintain the quality. So if we do anything, it’s quality first and then we look at say the packaging of it. So the packaging is never going to be as good as the quality of the cheese, so it’s important for us as a brand name and as cheese producers and as a family that we have the best-quality cheese that we can make.