Convenience. Quality ingredients. Bold flavors. Better-for-you options.

When it comes to snacking cheeses, the trends mirror those in other fresh perimeter departments and they’re not going anywhere anytime soon.

Making changes

Dietz & Watson has positioned itself as a leader in the production of premium no-antibiotics-ever and organic products like franks and sausages, deli meats and rBST-free cheeses. But the company saw the growing demand for these types of products in the snacking realm and responded by recently expanding its Originals line.

“One of the main reasons for our success over the past 75 years has been our ability to not only react to consumer demands, but to anticipate them, so we worked hard on perfecting the Originals line for years,” says Louis Eni, president and CEO of Dietz & Watson. “There is still a lot of ongoing research into antibiotic use in livestock and its effect on resistant bacteria in humans, but regardless of where the science takes us, there is no question that consumers are interested in ABF and organic products.”

The expanded line includes four-ounce packs of meat and cheese medallions as well as mini paninos that include pepperoni, genoa salami or prosciutto wrapped over mozzarella cheese. Also available are 3.75-ounce packages of Jarlsberg cheese snacks.

The line also makes use of resealable packaging and smaller portion size, the company says, to increase snacking portability and overall convenience.

Making inroads

Arla USA is a global dairy leader that is gaining tracing in the U.S and is doing so, in part, by catering to snackers.

The company recently release its line of snack cheeses into the dairy aisle and fresh perimeter and pushes the products’ clean ingredient labels.

That selling point lines up nicely with the company’s tagline — Live Unprocessed — and is backed up with ingredient labels that consist of nothing more than pasteurized milk, culture, salt and microbial rennet.

The cheese is sold in six-ounce bags that contain .75-ounce individually wrapped bars. The company says the shape is perfect for on-the-go snacking.

Available flavors include Mozzarella, Medium Cheddar, Havarti and Gouda.

Making it fresh

BelGioioso’s reputation as a high-end, fresh cheese supplier extends to its on-the-go cheese lines, including its newest addition to snacking cheese — Fresh Asiago Fresco.

The softer and creamier Asiago cheese has a mild, sweet flavor that the company says stands out among some of the other individually packaged snacking cheeses.

Each .75-ounce package is sealed in easy-open thermoform packaging, which the company says is ideal for a convenient and healthy snack or to shred on top of an individual serving of pasta for portion control, or even to pair with grapes, apricots, almonds, cashews or crackers.

Each packaging contains just 80 calories, making it attractive to health-conscious snackers.