Maxiren®EVO scores a hat trick with three cheese innovation awards wins in 2025

We’re proud to announce that Maxiren®EVO has taken home three prestigious industry awards in 2025:

• Best Manufacturing/Technology Innovation — FoodBev’s World Dairy Innovation Awards
• Product Launches (Cheese Processing Enzymes category) — Just Food Excellence Awards
• Research & Development — Just Food Excellence Awards

Together, these awards reinforce Maxiren®EVO’s role as a transformative cheese coagulant —boosting yield, enhancing texture, and enabling greater processing flexibility. Developed using cutting-edge fermentation biotechnology, Maxiren®EVO empowers cheesemakers to tackle today’s toughest production challenges with one powerful—and now award-winning—solution.

Celebrating a breakthrough in modern cheesemaking solutions

Cheese producers face growing pressure to deliver consistent quality, reduce waste, maximize whey value, and operate sustainably. Maxiren®EVO rises to this challenge with a highly specific mode of action, converting alpha S1-casein (αS1-casein) into αS1-i-casein. This precise enzymatic process accelerates curd formation, improves moisture retention, and enhances emulsification—driving greater efficiency, reducing losses, and supporting consistently high product quality.

How Maxiren®EVO earned its award-winning reputation

Maxiren®EVO sets a new benchmark in cheese coagulant performance, combining precision and versatility to meet the evolving demands of modern cheesemaking:

• Pizza-perfect performance—Enhances melt and stretchability for an indulgent eating experience, while delivering more even browning with reduced hot spots.
• Enhanced processing flexibility—Smooth texture and structure enables early and late slicing or shredding across shelf life, reducing waste and expanding production windows.
• Superior shelf-life stability—Minimizes stickiness and cutting losses by maintaining firmness in both fresh and matured cheeses, and enhances moisture, protein, and fat retention to boost overall yield.
• Designed for low-pH, fast-process cheese—Delivers reliable performance in acidic environments, such as pre-acidified milk used for mozzarella, supporting speed without sacrificing quality.
• Improved whey quality and value—With no residual enzyme activity after processing, Maxiren®EVO leaves whey clean and suitable for high-value sidestream applications.
• Clean, robust cheese flavor development—Supports natural, rich flavor profiles without bitterness, enabling premium positioning.

The outcome: more output from the same milk, higher quality cheese, less waste, efficient operations, better-quality byproducts —and award-winning cheese that tastes as good as it looks.

Powered by partnership

At dsm-firmenich, innovation goes beyond ingredients. We bring end-to-end support to help cheesemakers succeed. Our comprehensive portfolio spans coagulants for cheese, cultures, biopreservation, as well as flavor and texture solutions, all backed by extensive technical expertise. From process optimization to tailored formulation, we work side-by-side with producers to improve efficiency, quality, and product performance.

Speaking about the award wins, Ardy van Erp, Business Director Cheese at dsm-firmenich, said: "These awards recognize the meaningful impact Maxiren®EVO is having on the cheese industry. They reflect our commitment to helping cheesemakers solve real production challenges—improving yield, consistency, and consumer appeal. The awards are also a testament to the dedicated team of experts at dsm-firmenich and we are delighted their hard work has been recognized through this trio of awards.  Maxiren®EVO brings together advanced science and practical value, empowering our customers as they lead innovation in a dynamic market.”

To learn more about Maxiren®EVO and how we’re supporting the next generation of cheesemakers, click here.