{"id":7020,"date":"2023-11-06T09:46:07","date_gmt":"2023-11-06T14:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/?p=7020"},"modified":"2023-11-06T09:47:18","modified_gmt":"2023-11-06T14:47:18","slug":"dreamfarm-a-startup-out-of-italys-food-valley-is-setting-its-sights-on-the-perfect-vegan-mozzarella","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/index.php\/2023\/11\/06\/dreamfarm-a-startup-out-of-italys-food-valley-is-setting-its-sights-on-the-perfect-vegan-mozzarella\/","title":{"rendered":"Dreamfarm, a startup out of Italy\u2019s Food Valley, is setting its sights on the perfect vegan mozzarella"},"content":{"rendered":"

Natasha Lomas<\/a> for Tech Crunch –<\/em> <\/strong>Vegan cheese isn\u2019t usually anything to write home about, in terms of taste and texture.\u00a0Dreamfarm<\/a>, a startup based in Parma, in the Food Valley of Italy, is hoping to change that. It\u2019s cooked up a plant-based mozzarella using a base of fermented almonds, and just a handful of other ingredients, which it reckons does a far better job of mimicking actual mozzarella than the average vegan cheese alternative.<\/p>

As with traditional (quality) dairy-based mozzarella, Dreamfarm\u2019s plant-based cheese comes as a ball suspended in liquid \u2014 so you\u2019re not buying a bag of mozzarella-flavored cubes or shredded bits. (And the startup says it has a patent on the process used to create this faux \u201cmozzarella in liquid\u201d using a blend of vegan ingredients.) The product also boasts an \u2018A\u2019 Nutri-Score<\/a>, with lower levels of fat, saturated fat and salt than dairy-based mozzarella. (Albeit, it\u2019s also lower in protein.)<\/p>

\u201cThe idea was that we wanted to create the champion in the plant based cheese category,\u201d says CEO Giovanni Menozzi. \u201cAnd so we will not compromise on ingredients, on Nutri-Score, in general on healthy score.\u201d<\/p>

While the market for vegan products remains small, interest in dairy alternatives is growing as more people look to reduce consumption of foods derived from animals, including for environmental and health reasons.<\/p>

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Menozzi \u2014 a relatively recent hire for Dreamfarm as it moves beyond its early, R&D-focused phase \u2014 recounts how the startup\u2019s two co-founders, Maddalena Zanoni and Mattia Sandei, saw an opportunity to expand the size of the market for vegan cheese by focusing on product quality.<\/p>

\u201cWhat they saw, basically, is that plant-based cheese \u2014 all the products, the category \u2014 was super small. But the reasons were quite clear because the products were not good enough,\u201d he tells TechCrunch. \u201cA lot of ingredients, like more than 10, 12 ingredients in products, and also not healthy.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWhat they saw, basically, is that plant-based cheese \u2014 all the products, the category \u2014 was super small. But the reasons were quite clear because the products were not good enough”<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>

One of the co-founders, Sandei, had also been working for a b2b food ingredient company which supplied the alternative meat industry. \u201cSo I think what they saw was happening in the meat alternative industry they wanted to repeat in cheese,\u201d Menozzi goes on.<\/p>

\u201cMany companies started in meat alternative with a lot of ingredients \u2014 not healthy, not tasty \u2014 and then when like the industry like matures, all the consumers prefer to have less ingredients, to have Nutri-Score A, to have a good product.\u201d<\/p>

The full ingredients list for Dreamfarm\u2019s vegan mozzarella is as follows: Almond base (water, almond 25%, oat), vegetable fiber, salt, agar-agar, natural aroma, ferments (it uses a yeast-style starter to ferment the almond base) \u2014 which is considerably shorter than some vegan cheeses.<\/p>

Others \u2014 such as a \u201cmozzarella flavor\u201d product produced by food brand Violife \u2014 have about the same amount of ingredients listed. However Dreamfarm touts its faux mozzarella as lower in fat and saturated fat than Violife\u2019s rival product (which contains coconut oil).<\/p>

\u201cUsually in plant-based cheese\u2026 they use a lot of like coconut oil or other ingredients that are not super good for health,\u201d argues Menozzi, saying the startup\u2019s strategy to develop a \u201cclean label\u201d mozzarella alternative started with them selecting ingredients that could be sourced locally, in the Mediterranean area (such as almonds grown in Italy and Spain).<\/p>

\u201cIn the product we don\u2019t have, basically, saturated fats \u2014 less than 1% \u2014 so that was the main idea to change the category both on the taste, and also on the ingredients,\u201d he adds.<\/p>

When it comes to pricing, Dreamfarm\u2019s plant-based mozzarella is comparable to a \u201cgood buffalo mozzarella\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>

When it comes to pricing, Dreamfarm\u2019s plant-based mozzarella is comparable to a \u201cgood buffalo mozzarella\u201d, per Menozzi. In Italy, where the product went on sale in May (along with a plant-based spreadable cheese), it\u2019s priced at \u20ac3.60 for a 125g ball. (The vegan cheese spread is cheaper still, priced for retail at just \u20ac2.99.)<\/p>

It isn\u2019t disclosing any sales data yet, given it\u2019s still early days for the products and its food brand. But Menozzi says customers have been especially excited for the vegan mozzarella, the more novel of the two products \u2014 and he says their plant-based mozzarella has been outselling rival vegan mozzarella products 5x in some supermarkets.<\/p>

Organically, it also caught the attention of some online influencers. Plus they\u2019ve had a couple of pizza restaurant chains putting in on the menu already.<\/p>

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\u201cWe didn\u2019t invest one euro in marketing, we just went viral with the mozzarella with a lot of influencers,\u201d he says. \u201cWe didn\u2019t even send them samples\u2026 They just went to the retail shop, bought some pieces and show on Instagram what it looks like, how it\u2019s crazy to take out a proper mozzarella from liquid.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWith the mozzarella you have people really going into the supermarket to buy that product\u2026 Maybe they\u2019re also doing a lot of kilometres because we are not yet super well distributed \u2014 and they go there and they buy five and they bring some mozzarella to friends and other people who like it,\u201d he adds. \u201cBecause it\u2019s something still quite new and super appreciated. While the spread cheese is less innovative than mozzarella\u2026 so it\u2019s more like the junior brother of the mozzarella.\u201d<\/p>

Dreamfarm is announcing the close of a \u20ac5 million pre-seed round of funding today, with investment coming from a couple of local business angels with ties to the food industry: Giampaolo Cagnin, a serial entrepreneur who founded Italiana Ingredienti, Campus, and Hi-Food; and Francesco Mutti, the owner and CEO of the Mutti Group.<\/p>

Read more here<\/a><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vegan cheese isn\u2019t usually anything to write home about, in terms of taste and texture. Dreamfarm, a startup based in Parma, in the Food Valley of Italy, is hoping to change that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7023,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1226,1624,1623],"class_list":{"0":"post-7020","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-parma-italy","9":"tag-vegan-cheese","10":"tag-vegan-mozzarella","11":"pmpro-has-access"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/vegan-mozza-cropped.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7020"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7028,"href":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7020\/revisions\/7028"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/panoramitalia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}