Dairylea (cheese)

Kraft Foods Dairylea Triangles, Dairylea Lunchables, and Dairylea Dunkers are a popular processed cheese product, available in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.

Dairylea is usually in the form of a thick, spreadable soft cheese-flavoured paste. Famous for the slogans "Kids will eat it until the cows come home" and "Kids will do anything for the taste of Dairylea" and a series of adverts on UK television showing children trading toys and other items of value, or doing dares such as running into the opposite sex's toilets and holding a snail on the arm, for Dairylea Triangles.

Much like The Laughing Cow, Dairylea is packaged in a cardboard 'wheel' and opening it reveals the foil-wrapped soft cheese product in triangles. Kraft launched the Lunchables product in 1998 under the Dairylea branding. Kraft also markets single slices of processed cheese (much like Kraft Singles), string cheese (similar to Cheesestrings), snacks consisting of cheese spread dip and snacks such as breadsticks, baked crisps and Ritz crackers and wax-sealed hard cheese portions (similar to Babybel) under this brand. Dairylea also now comes in both its original form and a 'Dairylea Light' product marketed as 7% fat. Kraft imply that the product is credited with getting children more interested in cheese.

Packaging, in late 2011 a number of health concerns were highlighted by consumers to Dairylea in relation to their packaging using Bisphenol A, a controversial hormone mimicking plastic additive, which Breast Cancer UK are currently campaigning against. Concerns were initially raised when customers noticed the plastic marker number 7 in a triangle on the pots of dairylea Jumbo Tubes, this conflicts with what www.nomorebpa.org.uk advise; "The vast majority of these studies have raised public health concerns, especially about the exposure of very young children to BPA as they are less able to eliminate the chemical from their bodies, and scientists have linked exposure to increased risk of breast cancer as well as many other chronic diseases."

In the early 21st century, Dairylea Lunchables were advertised as being "full of good stuff", though the product contains high amounts of salt and saturated fats.^[1] Despite a 2007 reformulation that reduced salt content by 9% and saturated fat content by 34%, the claim "full of good stuff" was banned by the UK's Advertising Standards Authority.^[2] Kraft meanwhile stated that the salt content in Lunchables had been reduced by a third between 2005 and 2007.^[3]

In November 2008 it was found by the Food Commission, an independent consumer watchdog group, that Kraft Dairylea contained high levels of 3-MCPD, a suspected human carcinogen.^[4]

References

1. ^ "Dairylea advert 'misled' public". bbc.co.uk (BBC News). 2007-08-28. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6967053.stm. Retrieved 2007-08-29. 
2. ^ Sweney, Mark (2007-08-29). "Dairylea gets health kick". MediaGuardian (London: Guardian Media Group). http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/aug/29/advertising1. 
3. ^ "Kraft foods salt reduction initiatives". http://www.kraftfoods.co.uk/kraft/page?siteid=kraft-prd&locale=uken1&PagecRef=2373&Mid=2373. Retrieved 2007-08-29. 
4. ^ Poulter, Sean. "The cancer chemical lurking in our food". Daily Mail (London). http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-61607/The-cancer-chemical-lurking-food.html. Retrieved 2007-12-05. 

External links

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