CONO Cheese Makers has the ambition to go together for positive for future generations. This requires cooperation in the chain. Making the entire cheese chain sustainable requires developments in every step from cow's mouth to store shelf. So also in the area of packaging. CONO is constantly investigating how cheese packaging can become more sustainable. When it comes to using sustainable materials and reducing waste, CONO has had a first run of sustainable cheese paper made.

Sustainable cheese paper
We take a critical look at the process of ripening and packaging. Freshly cut cheese as sold in cheese specialty stores, the market or at our farm stores can be properly preserved by using cheese paper. The sustainable cheese paper is a composition of completely chlorine-free, bleached cellulose fibers. The paper has no plastic film but a water-soluble seal coating that is purified and filtered when pulverized. This makes the cheese paper 100% recyclable and may be disposed of with the paper. Traditional cheese paper is a combination between paper and plastic, which means it must be disposed of with residual waste.

The paper is intended for pieces of cheese cut fresh. The material is not yet suitable for slices in the self-service section of the supermarket. But things have already been done with that packaging as well. The sheets between the slices of cheese have already disappeared where possible, the seal has become smaller, but big steps are the packaging itself and the step on which the cheese lies. Together with customers, CONO tests alternatives for this packaging on a weekly basis. In which, of course, no concessions are ever made to the quality of our cheese.

Use of cheese paper
Cheese is cut from the knife and wrapped with a piece of cheese paper to keep the cheese grease-free. Cheese paper allows the cheese to breathe so it keeps longer. The sustainable paper is used at 't Kaas Lokaal in Delft. With the development of this sustainable cheese paper, CONO makes another step in its sustainability ambition for future generations.