Any cheese merchant would echo the sentiment, "it's not easy being green." Running an environmentally friendly cheese counter can be especially challenging given the need for plastic wrap, clamshells, and catering trays—not to mention abundant refrigeration and lighting. But younger customers, in particular, respect and reward merchants with sustainable practices. In the short run, green choices often cost more, yet some operators are actively exploring ways to lower their carbon footprint. If you’re not doing so already, you may want to consider the steps you can take to conserve resources, repurpose more, and waste less.
“We think about it constantly,” said Benjamin Roberts, head cheesemonger for France 44 in Minneapolis. “Food businesses are resource intensive, which is a euphemistic way of saying it. To run a cut-to-order cheese counter, you’re going to use quite a few materials and have energy-sucking equipment.”
Conversations with leading cheese merchants revealed five areas that offer the most potential for greener practices.
1. Packaging: “We’ve tried to find as many compostable materials as we can,” said Roberts. Housemade crostini go into compostable bags. Catering cheese trays go out on wood or bamboo instead of plastic. Roughly half of the clamshells used at the cheese counter are compostable. Gelson’s, a 27-unit supermarket in Southern California, has largely switched to PLA (polylactic acid) clamshells and palm-leaf platters at the cheese counter, said specialty cheese category manager Gayle De Caro. Moist foods will break down these platters in a couple of days, said De Caro, but they perform well for cheese plates made daily.
Materials for wrapping cheese are more problematic. “We haven’t found a suitable compostable cheese paper,” said Roberts, a dilemma for the many mongers who consider a breathable, lined wrap a necessity. Kowalski’s monger Elizabeth Nerud, who manages the Minneapolis chain’s Eden Prairie cheese counter, stands by plastic film and said she just tries to be more mindful about how much she uses. “I’m not 100 percent sold on cheese paper,” admited Nerud. “I need somebody to convince me it does a better job of conserving cheese.”
Her hesitation highlights an issue facing mongers as they try to navigate these decisions. Most lack the expertise to evaluate alternatives and be confident they are making a more sustainable choice. “You think you’re doing the right thing by having compostable containers,” said Roberts, “but some of them have PFAS in them.” The acronym for per- and polyfluorinated substances, PFAS chemicals break down very slowly and may present a health risk.
Party trays raise even more confounding issues. “Catering is about presentation,” said Roberts. “You can’t send an order out on something that doesn’t look amazing.” Sugar-cane platters lack the durability and attractive aesthetic he wants; wood rates high on both features but is it sourced from certified sustainable forests?
“I don’t know that I’m smart enough to say that a wood tray is a better option,” said Roberts. “We’re trying to do the right thing but don’t have all the resources. There’s a market for a consulting company that wants to help with best practices.”
Incoming packaging from distributors and creameries needs to be recycled or, even better, minimized. De Caro said her main distributor now puts multiple cheeses in one box, although blue cheeses have to be isolated. Spread over the 27 stores in the Gelson’s chain, eliminating a few boxes in each delivery can have a big impact.
2. Energy: Keeping the walk-in full is the best way to use refrigeration efficiently, said Roberts. The compressor doesn’t have to work as hard when shelves are full. Replacing old equipment with more energy-efficient modern units also helps. Gelson’s achieved more energy efficiency by putting doors on wall deli cases. “Now the refrigeration is not kicking in all the time,” said De Caro. “We’re not wasting refrigeration, with cold air floating out into the aisle. Some aisles you walk down and you’re freezing.”
Cheese-department lighting may present another opportunity for energy savings. At Gelson’s, the overhead spotlights on the cheese case are adjustable. Turning them down, when possible, not only conserves energy, it also helps minimize oxidative damage to the cheese.
3. Food waste: Sustainability-minded mongers are uber-vigilant about waste. They maintain a bargain bin for small cuts and point it out to shoppers as an opportunity to try something new. They sell their Parmigiano Reggiano for stock or make Parm broth in house. And they keep an eagle eye on the trash can.
“I saw an employee cutting off the smoky part of a smoked cheese and throwing it away,” said De Caro. “I got it out of the trash, put it on a scale and said, ‘Look at the money you just threw out. This is edible.’”
Kowalski’s has a robust food donation program, said Nerud, but any food waste that can’t be donated goes into a bucket at the counter and a pig farmer picks it up. Roberts says his team is so conscious of full utilization that the local food pantry stopped coming. “We just didn’t have enough food to donate,” said Roberts.
De Caro trains staff to minimize shrinkage by pre-cutting only what’s needed. If cheese arrives from a distributor or creamery with a compromised shelf life, she’ll reach out to the vendor for help with pricing. “We work together to put a promotion behind it so there’s no waste,” said the merchant.
4. Buying local: Some merchants say they lower their carbon footprint by prioritizing local producers. Cheese purchased from a nearby creamery clearly has fewer miles on it than product shipped from Europe, but the full environmental impact is more complicated. Direct sourcing from a farm has “all kinds of environmental inefficiencies,” argued Roberts, from the freezer packs it requires to the small-truck delivery. Roberts said he tries to avoid direct sourcing in hot weather to minimize excess packaging.
5. Mindfulness: A key component of any sustainability program is mindfulness. Make sure that employees know that you prioritize environmentally friendly practices. Encourage them to think twice before reaching for a disposable container when a reusable one would do, or to “bundle” tasks that require disposable gloves. An environmental mindset comes from the top, merchants say, and leading by example is a must.
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