Every spring we get a run of the same question through the member helpline: a buyer or a co-op partner asks about switching from animal rennet to a microbial or plant-based coagulant, and the member wants to know what actually changes in the finished wheel before they say yes. Webinar: Rennet Alternatives 2023, scheduled for April 20, is built to answer exactly that question, and it's open to any member curious enough to log in.
Why this keeps coming up
Coagulant choice isn't just a labeling decision, even though that's usually what starts the conversation — a retailer wants a vegetarian-friendly product line, or a kosher or halal certification is on the table. The chemistry underneath is real. Microbial coagulants clot milk differently than calf rennet, tend to run hotter before they lose activity, and can push a young cheese toward bitterness if a make sheet isn't adjusted to compensate. Plant-based options — fig leaf, thistle, nettle, and the handful of others members ask us about — behave differently again, and not every plant coagulant performs the same across cheese styles. None of that means don't switch — plenty of our members have made the change cleanly — it means don't switch mid-batch without a plan.
The session will walk through what changes in clotting time, curd firmness, and flavor development across the three main coagulant families, and what to watch for in the first few batches after a switch. Expect some time spent on why microbial rennet's higher heat tolerance matters at the pasteurization and cooking stages, not just at the point of adding it to the vat, and why that same heat tolerance is part of why some members notice a lingering bitterness in aged wheels made with it if the recipe wasn't adjusted going in.
There's also a labeling angle worth a few minutes on its own. "Vegetarian" and "microbial" aren't the same claim, and a coagulant switch that satisfies one certification doesn't automatically satisfy another. If your case carries products under more than one dietary claim, that distinction is worth getting right before a buyer or an auditor asks you to explain it.
Where it fits with your training
If the topic sticks with you past the hour, Cheese Chemistry goes deeper into the enzyme behavior behind the webinar's headline points, and Starter Cultures & Coagulants is the fuller course for anyone reworking a make sheet around a new coagulant rather than just fielding one buyer's question. Either is a reasonable next step depending on how much of your production this actually touches, and neither requires having sat through the webinar first.
We'd also flag this session to anyone pursuing the Cheese Foundations Certificate, since coagulant chemistry shows up in that curriculum too — a live Q&A with real member questions tends to stick better than the same material read cold.
Registration is open through the member portal now. If April 20 doesn't work for your schedule, the recording goes into the course library within a week, same as every other webinar this year, and the questions members raise live get added to the session notes for anyone catching up later.
The International Cheese Federation (ICF) and More Cheese are entirely fictional. This post is demonstration content created for MemberJunction. All people, organizations, events, courses, certifications, figures, and quotations in it are invented, and nothing here represents a real association, a real business, a real person, or real professional advice.