Chr. Hansen coagulant secures donation for Dairy Without Borders

By Jim Cornall

- Last updated on GMT

Chr. Hansen made a donation to Dairy Without Borders.  Lars Dall Jensen, left, chairman of Dairy Without Borders, and Anne Katrine Irgens, senior commercial development manager, cheese enzymes, Chr. Hansen.  Pic: Chr. Hansen
Chr. Hansen made a donation to Dairy Without Borders. Lars Dall Jensen, left, chairman of Dairy Without Borders, and Anne Katrine Irgens, senior commercial development manager, cheese enzymes, Chr. Hansen. Pic: Chr. Hansen
Food ingredients company Chr. Hansen is donating €4,100 ($4,800) to the DK-based NGO Dairy Without Borders, a non-profit organization working to advance rural communities in selected developing countries through knowledge sharing, training and transfer of skills.

The organization establishes and supports economically and environmentally sustainable projects that contribute to lift small local milk producers to a higher level in terms of use, storage and possible sales of their dairy products.

Chr. Hansen said Dairy Without Borders was an obvious choice for the donation they wished to make a year after the launch of the third generation CHY-MAX coagulant, CHY-MAX Supreme. Introduced globally last year, it enables up to 1% higher cheese yield and allows for processing more milk and cheese in less time.

Chr. Hansen said producers can profit from better slicing and grating of the cheese, with reduced giveaways and longer shelf life due to the reduced protein breakdown over time.

“We couldn’t be more satisfied with the reception CHY-MAX Supreme has received from the market​,” Anne Katrine Irgens, senior commercial development manager, cheese, Chr. Hansen, said. 

Groundbreaking innovations in the coagulant space are rare but we, as world’s leading producer of coagulation solutions, are committed to constantly raising the industry standard for performance and understand the challenges of modern cheesemakers. To further accelerate the interest in our new product, we promised to donate an amount to Dairy Without Borders for each industrial trial that was entered into in the first year after the launch so that customers could see for themselves that the advantages of CHY-MAX Supreme that we claim in fact hold true.

“We wanted to make a splash about CHY-MAX Supreme. Given the strong sustainability profile of the product, which makes it possible to produce more cheese with the same amount of milk, we thought it would make good sense to direct our donation to an organization that actively assumes social responsibility through taking a stand against poverty and helping to stabilize food security in less privileged regions. We are confident that Dairy Without Borders will know how to best put the money to good use.

Lars Dall Jensen, chairman of Dairy Without Borders, and manager of production technology and development at Arla Foods, said, “This is a very welcome donation and we are grateful for Chr. Hansen’s choice. Ultimately, we want to help small milk farmers get a better life, and the way we do this is by contributing with knowledge, so they can optimize their dairy production, achieve better prices and improve food safety for themselves and those who buy their products.

”When traveling round the world one realizes that it is in fact possible to help, even with relatively limited means. In Denmark we are fortunate that education is a prioritized element in society and, based on this, we can make a big difference in regions where even basic education is in short supply. I was in Kenya last fall in connection with a Government project on revision of the Kenyan food legislation, where lifting the quality of milk products is a focus area. One element concentrates on HACCP-control at the dairies and quality payment for the milk to the farmers, and here our members can really make a huge contribution by sharing their know-how.

In Mongolia, the organization sent two young girls to dairy school, and only this summer they completed four years of dairy education. They can now actively take part in a local project sponsored by the association, among other things based on a previous donation by Chr. Hansen Denmark and its employees. Today the visible proof is a small dairy in the making and a newly-established cooperative association whose responsibility it is to sell dairy products based on milk from yaks to tourists in the area, thereby improving the standard of living.

Related news