Leerdammer® was created in 1974, after Cees Boterkopper (a local small dairy owner) and Baastian Baars (cheesemaking business manager in a nearby town) came together. Their goal was to expand Dutch cheeses by combining the mild taste of Gouda with the characteristic holes of Emmental. The cheese takes its name from the town of Leerdam, where Cees Boterkopper's dairy was located. Since its inception, Leerdammer® has been loved all around the world for its irresistibly mild and nutty flavour, wholesome ingredients and melt-in-your-mouth texture.
Milk, the essential raw ingredient for Leerdammer® cheese, undergoes rigorous quality checks both at the farm during collection and upon arrival at the cheesemaking facility.
Our partner farmers are certified under the "Milk Quality Assurance Chain" (KKM), adhering to European and Dutch standards.
At the cheesemaking facility, nine milk quality criteria are assessed, including fat content, milk fat acidity, and antibiotic residues.
Our cheesemaking facilities are certified with:
ISO 9001: Quality Management System certification
FSSC 22000: Food Safety Management System certification
OHSAS 18001: Occupational Health and Safety Management System certification
ISO 14001: Environmental Management System specification
The ferments that we cultivate in-house are what gives Leerdammer® its unique flavour and characteristic holes. A ferment is first used to create the holes and develop the delicately nutty Leerdammer® taste. This ferment has remained unchanged since the creation of the Leerdammer® brand in the 1970s. Another ferment perfects the taste of Leerdammer® and gives rise to a more pronounced taste in our cheeses, depending on their maturation period.
After passing all the control phases, the milk enters the cheese factory and the manufacturing process begins. The milk is curdled using a microbial coagulating enzyme (which makes Leerdammer® suitable for vegetarians!) and lactic ferments are added for fermentation. The curd is molded and pressed, then the cheeses are immersed in a brine bath for more than 2 days for preservation and to enhance flavour. The cheeses are then matured with close monitoring, and after maturation completes, the wheels are coated with wax to preserve their supple texture.
Click-packs, made of 100% PET, are 100% recyclable in the UK.
In addition, from 2020 the proportion of recycled PET in our trays increased from 24% to 30%, saving fossil resources and reducing energy consumption by two thirds compared to conventional PET.
To ensure we're continuously improving at Leerdammer®, we first developed recyclable trays in the “click-packs” packaging of our slices, which have been 100% recyclable since 2018. Since then, we have worked tirelessly to obtain fully recyclable packaging for all our slices and blocks.