A Cheesy Supply Chain Leader

Cheese is not only delicious, it’s a multi-billion-dollar market valued at USD $120.63 billion globally and growing.[1] Manufacturers produce cheeses of varying flavors, appearances, and tastes, and work with trusted partners like Americold to store, age, and move their product through cold storage facilities and the food supply chain. As you’ll read, cheese that’s moving through the food supply chain requires very specific temperatures to maintain product form and promote the aging process when required.

Americold moves approximately 800 million pounds of cheese through our temperature-controlled network each year. Our love for cheese spans all types, sizes, and categories, but the most common cheese formats we handle are enormous 640-pound cheese blocks that take up a third of a pallet, 500-pound cheese barrels, and 40-pound chunks. Simply put, we love big cheese!

Special care is provided to ensure all product that moves through our temperature-controlled network meets the food safety expectations of our customers. In the case of cheese, this includes always keeping product free from allergen exposure and maintaining a constant temperature. Some Americold facilities are equipped with dedicated aging rooms, which exist for the sole purpose of storing and aging cheese products – for weeks, months, and sometimes even years – at specific temperatures.

Speaking of temperature, Americold’s storage and distribution network accommodates a range of temperatures to meet cheese manufacturers’ short- and long-term needs. Standard temperature offerings are as follows:

• -10°F – Product stored at this temperature maintains product form; typically includes cheese products in bulk or packaged for commercial kitchen use and destined for restaurants, institutions, schools, and food service companies that serve the industry. Examples include shredded cheese for pizza and food toppings, and cheese sticks.
  
  
• 0°F – Another freezing temperature option, storing product at 0°F extends shelf life and maintains product freshness for cheeses that may be a little more delicate.
  
  
• 36°F – Storing product at a refrigerated 36°F still allows producers to maintain the structural integrity of cheese but offers the product in ready-to-use condition so it can be immediately dispatched to end customers. Many cheese products destined for retail sale and food service use are stored and shipped at this temperature, as are softer cheeses that can’t be frozen.
  
  
• 42°F & 52°F – Americold’s aging rooms are held at these temperatures with specific humidity levels to promote maturing and produce sharper and more complex flavors. Product remains safe and secure in these dedicated rooms until the manufacturer instructs us to move the product.

Cheese in an aging room with Americold

Cheese is a multi-faceted market, with four key channels that Americold is proud to serve as a temperature-controlled warehousing provider of choice:

Manufacturers. Americold receives finished product (bulk/commercially packed and consumer sized) from manufacturers, which is typically then sent to food service or retail organizations. We also provide short- and long-term temperature-controlled storage for manufacturers where product returns to the manufacturer or a producer for further processing into other cheese products.

Distributors. Americold stores and moves cheese for distributors who’ve selected specific cheeses from domestic and international manufacturers. Product is then resold in bulk to food service companies or repackaged and sold to retailers and consumers.

Traders. Cheese is also a traded commodity, which means it’s a natural resource or agriculture product that’s bought and sold on a futures market. A significant amount of the cheese Americold stores is product being bought and sold as a commodity by traders. These are the large block and barrel cheeses mentioned earlier. We store the product under very specific conditions to ensure the longest possible shelf life, with ownership often changing multiple times throughout its residency with us; these are transfer-in-storage transactions.

Retail and Food Service. Americold works with cheese manufacturers to deliver cheese products to grocery stores for retail sale. Our facilities and network ensure product is kept at the ideal temperature from production through to the grocery store shelf. Americold stores a lot of frozen shredded pizza cheese that’s sent to national pizza chains and locally run pizzerias too.

Americold is proud to play a prominent role in the very specific cheese supply chain. Our portfolio of temperature-controlled offerings serves these channels with tailored solutions that bring cheese from place of production to place of consumption with quality, taste, and texture consistency. Now please, pass the parmesan!

[1] Cheese Market Size, Forecast. Market Research Report. Fortune Business Insights. January 2022.
https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/cheese-market-104293