There’s a new cheese on the market, but it’s missing something according to Kraft Foods Inc. The cheese says it is free of rBST, and may be the first in a line of dairy products that uses the absense claim of the controversial technology to gain market share.
Kraft Foods Inc. plans to offer cheese free of a controversial growth hormone, a strategic move that pressures competitors to follow. Northfield-based Kraft says it will start selling a line of cheese made with milk from cows free of rBST by June.
Kraft aims to capitalize on consumer worries about food safety with a specialty product that will fetch a higher price than its mass-market cheeses. The new cheese reflects CEO Irene Rosenfeld’s plan to rekindle growth with premium brands. Such a move by the nation’s biggest food company also could force rivals to offer products free of artificial hormones.
“This is a big development and shows that food companies acknowledge consumers are taking a much more active interest in what is in their food,” says Bill Bishop, chairman of Barrington-based consultancy Willard Bishop. “This used to be a niche interest, but as it becomes more mainstream the big food companies . . . have to respond or they will find themselves in an unfortunate position.”
For big food companies like Kraft, changing processes can add to manufacturing expenses, but those added costs can be passed on to consumers. And given their higher retail prices, natural and organic lines typically are more profitable, Mr. Bishop says.
Kraft began talking with suppliers in November about using milk free of synthetic hormones for its “2% Milk” cheese lines, a spokesman says. Kraft chose the 2% brand because it’s a premium line with several dozen products. “We understand this is important to some people, and this is what is really driving the decision for us,” he says.
Still, the company’s shift has the potential to reverberate throughout the dairy industry, resulting in more rBST-free cheese, ice cream and butter in general, says Catherine Donnelly, professor of nutrition and food science at the University of Vermont in Burlington. Several small processors, including Tillamook County Creamery Assn. in Oregon, began offering rBST-free cheese several years ago, but the decision by Kraft, the maker of Velveeta and Cheez Whiz, validates it as a mass-market move, she says.
Monsanto and other opponents to such labeling say there is no way to accurately certify something as free of rBST because milk with or without the hormone is chemically the same.
“Unfortunately, consumers are being misled to think one carton of milk is safer or more healthy, when in fact all milk is the same,” a Monsanto spokeswoman says. “People are paying more for milk that is the same.”
3 Comments on “Kraft Offers New Cheese”
It’s the IGF factor that people are concerned about. That, and the concern about practices that follow from the use of rBGH, such as increased use of antibiotics to defend against the increased instance of mastitis, and the notion that rBGH uses cows up, depletes bone density and shortens their lives. People care about these things and want to be able to make a choice. Milk from cows treated with rBST is banned in most European countries. People pay more in part out of the hope that the farmer who forgoes rBGH will be rewarded for that choice.
It’s the IGF factor that people are concerned about. That, and the concern about practices that follow from the use of rBGH, such as increased use of antibiotics to defend against the increased instance of mastitis, and the notion that rBGH uses cows up, depletes bone density and shortens their lives. People care about these things and want to be able to make a choice. Milk from cows treated with rBST is banned in most European countries. People pay more in part out of the hope that the farmer who forgoes rBGH will be rewarded for that choice.
It’s the IGF factor that people are concerned about. That, and the concern about practices that follow from the use of rBGH, such as increased use of antibiotics to defend against the increased instance of mastitis, and the notion that rBGH uses cows up, depletes bone density and shortens their lives. People care about these things and want to be able to make a choice. Milk from cows treated with rBST is banned in most European countries. People pay more in part out of the hope that the farmer who forgoes rBGH will be rewarded for that choice.