Dairygold Food Ingredients, which buys approximately £70 million of cheese from a global market, has positioned Jackie at its Crewe site where she will work alongside Procurement Director Guy Johnston and DFI’s procurement team. Her role will include tasks such as visiting other third party sites to select and grade cheese for purchase, as well as using her wealth of expertise in the cheese grading field to assist the commercial and technical teams.

Assessing both functionality and maturity of cheese, Jackie, who was previously cheese grading manager for Milk Link, will support effective procurement, storage and production decisions.

Jackie, who acts as a judge at the Nantwich Cheese Show, certainly knows her subject thoroughly.

She said: “I want to bring my experience and spread out this knowledge of cheese throughout the company.

As someone who tastes up to 500 cheeses a day, Jackie will help bring about an increased level of interface between customers and the commercial team.

Jackie said: “Customers all want something different and I can show them that they need this particular cheese to achieve a particular functionality or flavour.

“Cheese isn’t just cheese, it’s a living, breathing thing, which alters from the day it’s manufactured to the day it’s eaten.

Jackie brings a wealth of experience to DFI, and she is looking forward to utilising this experience to support the company’s continually growing industrial and foodservice markets.

The new appointments include Claire Kilburn, who has taken on the role of Technical Director (Cheese Solutions), and Jonathan Osborne, who has joined the Sales and Marketing team as Business Development Manager.

Claire now heads up the technical team with responsibility for ensuring that DFI delivers a quality, legal and food-safe product which meets the company’s customer specification.

Her appointment has already paid dividends with the announcement that the company, which is the UK’s largest supplier of cheese and dairy-based ingredients to UK food manufacturers, has received an A grade for its BRC audit at both its Crewe and Leeds sites.

Claire said: “A grade A certification is a fantastic achievement and this is down to everybody’s commitment at Dairygold Food Ingredients.”

Her remit is to maintain grade A status of the company’s sites, with a 15-strong team under her. Her brief also includes driving technical standards across the three sites at Crewe, Leeds and in France.

She has a wealth of technical and project management experience in the food industry, most recently at Anglo Beef Products where she worked for two years.

Commenting on the challenge in her new job, Claire said: “It’s the people at Dairygold that makes the job so great. They’re the foundation of the business and there’s a great work ethic at all levels. I’m so impressed by the passion displayed by everyone who works here.”

Jonathan Osbourne now works in the company’s Industrial Sector, with responsibility for driving annual sales in key accounts.

Jonathan has enjoyed a long and successful career in sales and product development, and is already making a valuable contribution to the business.

“I was very much looking forward to the new challenge of my new role, and it is certainly living up to my expectations so far,” says Jonathan. “The dairy industry is an exciting place to be, and I look forward to working with the team further to grow existing business and deliver new sales in this key sector.”

Dairygold Foods has also made a number of other new appointments: in Leeds, Simon Smith has joined as Technical Assistant and Ali Aoyb as Production Operative. Five production staff have also joined the Crewe team this year: Poitr Sokol, Mindaugas Vitkauskas, Magda Gayda, Magda Kilesizczyk and Kasis Gniadowska, while Peter Minarech joins the Warehouse team. Jackie Evans has joined Kevin Lloyd’s team in Customer Services.

Pizzamelt, a topping consisting of premium mozzarella and the finest natural cheddar cheese, was created after an extensive research and development programme. It was designed to offer customers a simple and consistent means of producing pizzas with exceptional flavour, excellent melt and browning properties and real stretch.

“We believe we have developed the best possible blend in terms of taste, functionality and performance characteristics,” says Tony Kourellias, Business Development Manager for Dairygold, which is one of the UK’s largest suppliers of cheese and dairy-based ingredients to UK food manufacturers and the foodservice industry. “Our extensive research has shown that the larger grate size upon which Pizzamelt is based helps achieve a more consistent cook.”

A significant advantage of Pizzamelt is that less of it is needed. Compared with standard grated products, it has proven to reduce the required amount by 33%.

“This saving reduces the cost of pizza-making, which is good news for businesses looking to cut costs at source while maintaining product quality,” says Tony. “It also offers a healthier option to today’s conscious consumers, with no compromise on taste or texture.”

Tony is also a trained development chef with a comprehensive insight into ingredient performance, and is on hand to assist customers in creating the most delicious pizza possible.

Pizzamelt is available in three varieties: Pizzamelt Green, which consists of 100% mozzarella, Pizzamelt Red, which is 80% mozzarella and 20% cheddar, and Pizzamelt Blue, which comprises 70% mozzarella and 30% analogue. It is produced in three convenient formats: grated (9.6mm), baby dice and extra long dice.

DFI has fused its long history of cheese-making with technical expertise to perfect its broad range of cheese powders, marketed under the ‘taste discovering flavour’ brand. Often used to replace hard cheese, the versatile powders can be used to enhance cheese taste in a long list of products including breads and pastries, soups and sauces, ready meals, pizza, crisps, biscuits, dips, canned food and baby food.

DFI added cheese powders to its broad portfolio of products in 2009, when it acquired a world-class cheese powder manufacturing facility in France. Since then, the team has developed more than 100 cheese powder formulas and doubled its cheese powder volumes.

“Cheese powders are an incredibly user-friendly and versatile ingredient option,” says Aidan Fitzsimons, Business Unit Director: Cheese Solutions. “They are made from natural cheese and dairy ingredients, and deliver excellent taste, functionality and mouth feel to end products.

“Today’s food manufacturers are under a lot of pressure to reduce costs and simplify production processes,” he adds. “Cheese powders are a more cost effective and easier-to-use alternative to hard cheeses, yet they deliver the same high quality results. They also have a long shelf-life and require no refrigeration.”

Thanks to advanced spray-drying technology, the ‘taste’ powders can be custom-made to suit the industry’s needs. Aspects such as their solubility and fluidity can be adapted to suit each application in terms of price, flavour, functionality and nutritional aspects. DFI also has a dedicated team of application specialists, who are on hand to help customers make the most of the ‘taste’ range.

A wide selection of cheese powder varieties is available from DFI: the core range includes cheddar, camembert, cheddar, emmental, goat’s cheese, blue cheese, gouda and more.

“We aspire to be a ‘one-stop-shop’ for  cheese and dairy ingredients,” says Aidan. “By developing and growing the ‘taste’ cheese powder range, we have created yet another solution to even better address our customers’ needs.”

For UK Cheese Powder Sales contact Cherie Froude, Business Development Manager, on +44 (0) 771 331 1519 or cfroude@dairygold.co.uk