The food technology company Armored Fresh took part in the world’s largest consumer electronics exhibition CES 2023 in Las Vegas, USA. It presented a brand new product called “Almond Milk American Slices”.
The company offers an innovative technological process that can reproduce animal proteins such as casein using only plant-based ingredients. The ability of cheese to melt, one of the important challenges facing the plant-based cheese technology sector, is one of the components that make Armored Fresh’s approach stand out.
Requiring only water and oxygen, the technology behind a variety of dairy-free products has attracted a lot of attention. To dig a little deeper, Interesting Engineering (IE) visited Daniel Young at the event, one of Armored Fresh’s representatives.
Could you explain what Armored Fresh cheese is?
Armored Fresh cheese is a cheese based on almond milk. Now we have two different types of cheese for snacks.
But we also have sliced cheese that can be added to sandwiches and burgers. Our cheese is completely free of dairy, soy and GMOs (genetically modified organisms). In addition, it is cholesterol-free, so it is great for those looking for a delicious cheese or a healthy alternative.
How is Armored Fresh cheese made? What is the food technology behind it?
We have a proprietary technology in terms of our recipe and big data analytics, but the great thing about our technology and our blend is that we can walk into any manufacturing facility that is already processing dairy cheese.
We can enter these factories, use the same machines and have our own product. The only difference is that we have our own blend and all our key blends that replace animal products with vegetable products.
Our overhead costs are much lower. We don’t need special equipment or training, which is great for scaling. Our potential is much greater than most other companies.
Apart from Armored Fresh cheese being an option for people with lactose intolerance, are there any other benefits of this choice?
We realized that there is a lack of flavor in the world of plant-based cheeses. Therefore, it is difficult to compete with the dairy world. But we decided to give preference to taste.
Then we also realized that 68 percent of the world’s population is lactose intolerant. This means we have to provide an alternative choice for the population that can’t just enjoy dairy cheese. And so we wanted to offer this option with our technology and our products.
We are working on a formulation where our nutritional value will increase so that we can replicate what dairy cheese offers. But we can also add more nutritional value to the mix to get more probiotic protein and vitamin value. So we can move into the mature nutraceutical aspect of cheese.
In addition, unlike other dairy products, our cheese melts perfectly. It really does. And then we can also get that texture.
Assuming that it doesn’t require as much care as dairy cheese, can something like this help overcome food insecurity? Or any other important issues?
In terms of shelf life, it has to be stored in the refrigerator. It is not resistant to storage. But in terms of refrigeration, we are on par with other cheese brands in terms of shelf life.
However, the sustainability aspect of things is definitely beneficial. We are trying to completely replace dairy products just because of their environmental impact. It’s not sustainable.
After production, how long do you have to consume it?
The shelf life after production is nine months. But our mozzarella comes out later, and we are looking at a one-year shelf life.