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Violife – could it be the best plant-based cheese alternative on the planet?

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could it be the best plant-based cheese

alternative on the planet?

Cheese is regarded as the Holy Grail of the fast-growing plant-based sector worldwide.

Yet Greek-based Arivia, part of largest global plant-based foods company Upfield, has cracked the code of the popular dairy produce with its highly versatile Violife alternatives. Having grown consistently and become number one in its category in 30 countries, Violife continues to expand its portfolio with a mission to convert millions of mainstream consumers to plant-based alternatives. CEO of Arivia Anthimos Misailidis and Head of R&D Thanos Korokas spread the word about Violife’s turbocharge to the top with Inside Food and Drink’s Andy Probert.

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verything is on the up for Violife, the plant-based cheese brand is seriously rattling traditional dairy produce segments.

While taste, texture and functionality of traditional cheese have proven its unique versatility for almost every mealtime occasion, Violife has seamlessly eased into consumers’ consciences and shopping slipstreams. Why? Simply put, it can do the job of its dairy rival.

Violife chimes with vegans, vegetarians, flexitarians and the curious who see plantbased food as a positive contribution to their diets, but also aligns with the need for global action for carbon footprint reduction.

“Our goal with Violife is to be present in everyday meal events and promote more sustainable diets through plant-based nutrition,” said Arivia CEO Anthimos

Misailidis. “Cheese is the Holy Grail of the plant-based sector, but that’s probably why Violife is the number one choice in 30 countries.”

Strength from acquisition Established in 1990 in Thessaloniki, Greece, Arivia initially produced cheese alternatives containing dairy proteins in an attempt to match as much as possible the dairy equivalent. Sales boomed in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Balkans.

Gradually, the company began to penetrate the plant-based movement, not consciously targeting vegans, but with the basic understanding that plant-based nutrition would become mainstream; given there were not adequate resources to feed the world’s entire population, revealed Mr Misailidis.

Its whole business dynamic shifted in 2014 when Arivia began to concentrate on producing a 100% plant-based cheese alternative that heralded the launch of Violife.

Violife has grown exponentially since, and in 2020 Arivia was acquired by Upfield, the world’s largest plant-based foods company and leading producer of plant-based spreads, butters and creams, including Flora. The acquisition was considered by Upfield as a strategic move to enter the fastest-growing food segment – plantbased cheese alternatives.

Mr Misailidis said: “As part of the Upfield family, we can pursue shared goals on sustainability and offer higher quality, delicious alternatives to dairy products.

Being firmly committed to growing consumer satisfaction, we are convinced

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Upfield’s global footprint and Arivia’s unique portfolio will act as a catalyst towards increased availability of premium, plant-based food across retail and foodservice outlets.

“We at Arivia acknowledged we needed a growth platform that would enable us to gradually mainstream the brand and the category as a whole. We have penetrated the health store part of the market, but to go into the mainstream required additional resources and partnering with a global plant-based leader like Upfield.”

Head of R&D Thanos Korokas said: “The fact is that we are Greek and grew up with the Mediterranean diet; it was natural for us to develop products from plant sources. Now having been with Upfield for two years, we have gained access to resources we didn’t have before from the standpoints of ingredient technology and food technologists.”

Five years ago, Arivia had a 150-strong workforce, but today employs 800 people, with 700 at its production plant in northeastern Greece. With its headquarters and sales and marketing units also located in Greece, these are further supplemented by Upfield staff representing Violife worldwide.

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True global brand Violife has firmly established itself as the number one plant-based cheese alternative brand in the UK, with availability across all major retailers in the UK, including Sainsbury’s, Asda, Tesco, Morrisons, Waitrose and other speciality food stores.

“Violife is the only genuine global brand in the plant-based cheese category and is now present in more than 60 countries,” Mr Misailidis asserted. “We have a 22% global category share based on industry data, and we have been growing on an average annual basis of 50%, although in 2020 we achieved 55%.

“We don’t foresee growth slowing down, and we have a wide variety of every cheese type, whether it’s sliced, semi-hard, hard, blocks, specialities, spread, or in cream form. Violife has a unique proposition that, for a non-dairy cheese, is all-encompassing and versatile for consumers.”

“We have a great global presence, leading in the Scandinavian countries and across wider Europe. Although we entered relatively late, we are also very strong in Germany and Canada,” detailed Mr Misailidis, noting that Violife is

presently running ‘hot’ in the Middle East and Latin America.

“Because Violife is a ‘free-from everything brand’ – and that includes dairy, soya, gluten, lactose, nuts, preservatives, and emulsifiers – it leads in terms of taste and functionality. It is vegan, but you don’t have to be to enjoy Violife,” said Mr Misailidis.

Several slices of Violife’s profile He added: “Our portfolio allows us to further enhance our presence in the consumer’s daily nutrition and for all daily occasions. Providing them options makes it easy for us, whether it is an addition to a salad, pizza, sandwich, a burger, risotto or mac and cheese.

“The end goal is that eating in-home and out of the home have not been as distinct as they have been in the past.

So this allows us, in a more enhanced way, to be a presence in the eyes of the end consumer. The portfolio also serves the overall strategy of Upfield: a more plant-derived food planet. Violife’s options can act as an accelerator to fulfil that vision going forward.”

Accelerating into people’s lives have been Violife’s latest releases, with Mr Misailidis declaring: “there’s more to come in the near future”. This includes Le Rond Camembert, a coconut oil-based product that can be served hot or cold with recipe ideas included in every box.

The camembert-flavour product is also free from dairy, soya, gluten, lactose, nuts, preservatives, and emulsifiers.

Violife also launched Viocreme, a vegan alternative to cream. It pours the same way as dairy cream and can be used for cooking, baking, and toppings. It is made from natural ingredients.

In 2021, Violife expanded its portfolio with two new plant-based spreads: Viospread with a reduced fat content, and new vegan butter alternative VIOBLOCK. Providing a buttery flavour, VIOBLOCK contains vitamins B1, B2, B6 and B12 and folic acid while being free from dairy, soya, gluten, lactose, nuts, and preservatives. It also marked Violife’s first butter alternative.

Violife also launched a vegan BBQ pack last summer, containing three varieties of vegan cheese alternative: Violife BBQ

Slices; Violife Greek White; and Violife Mediterranean Style Block.

The BBQ Slices (new and exclusive to the BBQ pack) have a sweet and smoky flavour with a touch of paprika and are designed to be paired with vegan burgers.

Greek White is perfect for salads and the Mediterranean Style Block for grilling.

With Violife also releasing a Mexicanstyle three-cheese blend in the US, Mr Korokas commented: “It’s all about the cheese. We never lose our focus as this is what made us popular, and the goal is to create the best plant-based cheese alternatives in the world. It’s our ambition, and over the last two years, we have achieved many milestones.

“We use starches, proteins and fibres derived from all sorts of fruits, vegetables and roots. What defines the Violife taste is our use of coconut oil, while we use carrot and paprika for colouring.

Flavour is achieved through many different extraction and fermentation processes of plant sources.

“We can easily adapt our products to fit the regional needs of consumers. For

example, we designed a cheese alternative to the Spanish Manchego, but then we received a request for a Mexican Manchego, which is completely different.”

Mr Korokas said: “We have also matched Cheddar, and it has proved one of our most popular to date. But Cheddar is an intercontinental product consumed everywhere.

One in the US is different to one in the UK, which is also different to others in Europe.

We can change the taste to suit the region with all the functionality and taste.”

Mr Misailidis said Upfield is now embarking on its fourth generation technical innovation process in its plant-based cheese development, having covered improvements in the first three waves over the last seven years.

Sustainable goals Violife’s sustainable agenda falls into Upfield’s strategy of working towards A Better Plant-Based Future while actively pursuing neutral emission ambitions.

As part of its sustainability drive, Upfield estimated it has helped consumers and chefs avoid emissions of up to 6 million metric

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tonnes of CO2-equivalent in just one year based on a theoretical assumption they chose plant-based butters, margarines and spreads over equivalent dairybased products.

In an industry first, Upfield’s ‘avoided emissions’ is supported by product-specific, peer-reviewed life cycle assessments and complements its ambition to achieve “better than net-zero” emissions by 2050.

Upfield also plans to drive change with a strategy focused on four pillars: providing plant-based foods, enabling nutritious lives and happier people, and contributing to a better planet for all. Another ambition is to positively impact one billion people’s lives by 2030 by encouraging the switch from dairy to plant-based options.

Upfield has also committed to being 95% plastic-free and having better packaging by 2030.

Mr Misailidis said: “Upfield also plans to introduce carbon-free labels to more than half a billion packs by 2025 and produce 100% plant-based products also by 6

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2025, not just on Violife, but across the whole Upfield portfolio of margarines, butter spreads and creams too.”

In the last few years, Upfield has also been seriously engaging in more sustainability goals, including concluding its life cycle assessment, the only plant-based cheese brand to do so.

“We have just concluded 20 SKUs covering the EU, UK, US and Canada.

Compared to a similar dairy format, our LCA study, carried out by Quantis, shows that our products have less than half the carbon footprint and occupy less than one third of the land,” Mr Misailidis reported.

This report, which can be read on Violife’s website, led to the creation of Violife’s ‘Change’ campaign which launched during Veganuary this year. This new campaign from Violife encourages consumers to ‘Change Your Cheese’ from dairy, to reduce their climate impact on the planet with deliciously tasty ‘change’ meals.

The goal is to radically reduce plastic consumption per kilogram of the end

product by 50% in the next two years, and whatever plastic is used, the company’s aim is for it to be fully recyclable.

All solid organic waste is also directed for biogas and electricity production.

There are plans to install solar panels in its production facility to derive electricity from alternative sources.

“We are also certified that all our energy comes from renewable sources, and we have a wastewater treatment plant, which allows us to reduce organic liquid waste by more than 97%,” said Mr Misailidis.

“But we need to be even more aggressive and, as technology progresses, we will be able to enhance further and accelerate our sustainability agenda, and our core focus will be a more sustainable future and plastic-free packaging.”

Both revealed that Violife and Upfield are ‘obsessed’ with scrutinising the supply chain.

“We have all vertical traceability back and forth through the supply chain from

every single supplier, and that demonstrates the way we achieve Upfield vision and mission,” Mr Misailidis added.

Future global initiatives With the US, in terms of a cheese market, valued at $20 billion, with service adding that to $30 billion, the plant-based cheese category has a penetration of 1.4%, and it is predicted to double in the next three years. In the UK, cheese retail is worth around $10 billion, with a 1.2% market penetration in the plant-based cheese category, but with the growth of the foodservice input, that could double within four years.

Mr Misailidis emphasised: “These statistics and predictions suggest this category is in the early stages of high-growth potential and the more we can offer in quality products to the end-consumer, the more it will grow.

“By 2050, WHO predicts that more than 50% of human nutrition will be plant-based because the planet can’t afford to provide food from animal resources. It’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when. With the aid of Upfield, we want to provide products that satisfy that need, not only out of necessity but in a tasty and enjoyable way.”

He revealed that Violife’s Greek facility is close to concluding its second expansion to help increase operating capacity by 35% and bring its covered operating area to more than 200,000 sqft. It presently produces 2,500 tonnes per month, but that will rise to 3,500 tonnes per month following the expansion.

Upfield is also contracting its first facility in Canada. This 60,000 sqft facility is expected to be operational by late 2022 to exclusively serve clients in the Americas.

Mr Misailidis added: “As we are growing so fast, the aim is to keep up with that growth, and it is an investment-intensive project. Our investment in the last three years, and with the expansion of our facility in Greece and the new plant in Canada, will total about €50 million.”

Violife has also been reaping the rewards and achievements with its global presence.

These have included its Smoky Cheddar Slices being voted the best product for the dairy alternative category by The Grocer magazine in the UK. It was also awarded the number one plant-based cheese in East Europe, covering the Czech Republic, Slovenia, and Poland.

According to a highly reputable publication in Japan, Violife was one of only three food products among 30 that are expected to excel in the Japanese market in 2022.

“Japan is an important and new market that we have launched in September 2021, and we see a huge potential to succeed there as the Japanese are quality and health-conscious. Our brand proposition is an excellent fit, and Japan will also be central to help us grow in South-East Asia in the coming years,” said Mr Misailidis.

He added: “We are looking for better products from competitors in the market because once they do, they will help accelerate the penetration of the overall plant-based cheese category and be more visible to the end consumer.

“I think it will be a blessing to have more quality products in the market. This category is all about trial – if you enjoy that product, then you will stay within the plant-based cheese category.”

Mr Korokas added: “We are the only ones in the market that can guarantee high shelf life without using preservatives because of our unique production process.

“From a product development standpoint, we approach it differently from others. We start by trying to benchmark a target product to match: We look at the dairy equivalent, and the process is to get a good understanding of the functionality of the cheese so that we can begin innovating.

“We achieve amazing results, and when this happens, it is really exciting.

Some see us as magicians, but we are simply perfectionists with innovation at our core.” n Inside Food & Drink

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