First Dutch 100% plant-based cheese launched

Know how since 1936, no cow since 2020. This is the pay-off for the recently launched vegetarian brand WildWestLand. Dutch cheese makers Westland Kaas, known for Maaslander and Old Amsterdam, started the brand together with Those Vegan Cowboys: the vegetable dairy lab of Vegetarische Slager founders Jaap Korteweg and Niko Koffeman. The aim: to make really tasty vegetable 'Fromance', and at the same time speed up its development. The first products will be available in supermarkets this summer. 

Westland Kaas becomes the first Dutch cheese maker to enter the vegetable segment

The two companies found each other in the ambition to make the most sustainable and at the same time the tastiest cheese. For pioneers Those Vegan Cowboys, that means a vegan, microbial variant made from grass that is identical to the original, but without the use of a cow - a development that still needs a few years. Westland CEO Henny Westland previously expressed the ambition to produce only climate-neutral cheese by 2036. With the joint venture, Westland is the first large traditional Dutch cheese maker to go into the shops with a vegetable variant.  

The cheese girl in 2021 promotes Fromance

The WildWestLand mascot is a modern cheese girl who wants to future-proof the family's pride. But she is not going to let her cheese be stolen from her - above all, it has to taste great. She meets a cowboy with wild ideas about a steel cow, and the rest is Fromance. The cheese girl of today calls her delicacies 'Fromance' in celebration of her joint vegetable ambitions. With Henny Westland and Jaap Korteweg in mind, it's a brand story that hasn't been made up in a single word.

Full proceeds go to development of vegetable Fromance

The founders of WildWestLand say that the spark has been passed on 'for the love of cheese'. By combining their expertise, the entrepreneurs can already partly realise their ambitions with delicious Fromance. Yet today's Fromance is not the final goal for them - it is a way of speeding up the realisation of the ultimate sustainable delicacy. All proceeds from WildWestLand therefore go back into innovation, particularly of hard vegetable variants.

June at the Albert Heijn

In mid-June, the public will be able to get to know the first three Fromances: a traditional neutral variant called Cream Passionel, the herbal gem Garlic & Herb Affair and the mild spreadable Unguilty Pleasure Dip. More Fromances are in development and may be launched later this year. WildWestLand is in talks with several sales channels and will be available at Albert Heijn from week 24. Around that time, the curious will also get the chance to taste the products for the first time in a 'plant-based lover's lunch'. 

wildwestland.com