La Casa Del Formaggio

Leading cheese company sets benchmark in water and energy efficiency

La Casa Del Formaggio, Australia’s leading producer of fresh Italian-style cheeses, is proving there’s nothing cheesy about serious sustainability. Its $35 million production facility in Edinburgh, in Adelaide’s northern suburbs, is packed with clever design features that cut environmental impact and boost performance. Nationally recognised for packaging leadership, La Casa is showing the future of food manufacturing is anything but bland.

La Casa Del Formaggio produces Australia’s leading range of fresh Italian-style cheeses. In 2023 they commissioned a new $35m state-of-the-art dairy manufacturing facility in Edinburgh, SA.  This included a significant investment into equipment to drive waste, water and energy efficiency in line with the goals set out in their 2021-2025 Sustainability Plan. The company reports that it has exceeded these targets, achieving in excess of a 20% reduction in water, 10% reduction in electricity and 10% reduction in gas per kilogram of product produced since the facility was commissioned.

Innovation driving energy efficiency includes: 

• acid whey stream heat recovery enabling the re-use of heat for other manufacturing processes
• recirculated water chilled via heat exchangers using glycol for cheese cooling
• ultra-efficient vertical steam boilers converting 86% of gas energy to steam
• ammonia-based refrigeration with water cooled condensers to reduce electricity consumption.

Waste reduction has been achieved through: ‘Double O Vats’ which increase cheese yield up to 0.5% of milk volume and reduce milk wastage; installation of a state-of-the-art batch cooker/stretcher which minimises the waste streams of hot water, fat and salt; and advanced milk separation capacity reducing butter fat to trade waste.

La Casa Del Formaggio was also recognised in 2024 as one of the five national finalists (alongside Coles, Myer, Telstra and Woolworths) in the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation awards, for excellence in implementing the Australasian Recycling Label (ARL) program on its packaging. ARL guides consumers on the correct disposal of packaging and aligns to the commitment from Australian industry and government to transition towards a circular economy for packaging.

Please note that the information provided has been submitted by the organisation and has not been independently verified.