Babybel | |
---|---|
Country of origin | France (produced worldwide) |
Source of milk | Cow |
Pasteurised | Yes |
Texture | Semi-hard |
Certification | Trademarked brand name |
Related media on Commons |
Mini Babybel is a brand of small snack cheese products that are individually packaged and available in various flavors. It is a product of Le Groupe Bel ( French for 'The Bel Group'), a company with roots in the Jura region of France, started by Jules Bel in 1865. [1] Half of the global production of Mini Babybel is made in Évron, a commune in the northwest of France. [2]
In the United States, Le Groupe Bel produces the Mini Babybel cheeses in Kentucky. [3] In March 2016, Bel Brands USA opened a new plant in Brookings, South Dakota. At the time, Bel Brands projected that its 250 employees would produce 1.5 million Mini Babybel cheese wheels per day. [4] In July 2018, Le Groupe Bel announced that the company had 12,700 employees in 30 subsidiaries around the world and that their first Canadian production facility would be in Quebec. [5]
The "Original", most popular, [6] Mini Babybel is an Edam-style cheese made from pasteurised milk, rennet, lactic ferments, and salt. [7] It is made using traditional Edam-making processes, except that rennet from vegetarian – rather than animal – sources is used. It is also naturally lactose-free. [7] [8]
Mini Babybel is known for its packaging, consisting of a netted bag in which each piece of cheese is encased in a blend of colored paraffin and microcrystalline wax, [9] inside of a cellophane wrapper made of wood pulp, cotton, or "other vegetation." [7] Numerous flavors of Mini Babybel are offered across the world.
Flavour | Colour | References/comments |
---|---|---|
"Original" Edam | Red (all locations) | |
"Light" Edam | Light blue (all locations) | Sponsored by WeightWatchers in Canada [10] |
Organic Edam |
| Vegetarian |
Cheddar |
| [11] |
Emmental | Yellow (Belgium, Canada – discontinued, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Slovakia, Spain – discontinued, United Kingdom) | |
Gruyere | Yellow (Canada, Switzerland) | [11] |
Goat's cheese | Green (Canada – discontinued, France – discontinued, Ireland – discontinued, United Kingdom – discontinued) | |
Gouda |
| |
Monterey Jack | Turquoise (United States) | [12] |
Mozzarella | Green (United States, Canada – discontinued, Greece – discontinued) | [11] |
"Sharp Original" (cheese type unknown) | Magenta (United States) | |
"High Protein" | Black (Australia, Belgium, Czechia, Germany, Italy – discontinued, Netherlands – discontinued, Portugal) | |
Plant-Based Cheese | Green, with leaves (Canada, Netherlands, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States) | Vegan. Appears in a pouch instead of a net bag. Made with a "blend of coconut oil and starch." [13] |
Plant-Based "White Cheddar" | Green wax/wrap colour unknown (United States) | Vegan. Appears in a pouch instead of a net bag. Made with coconut oil and starch. [14] |
An advertising jingle associated with the product plays on the lyrics of the song "Barbara Ann" by The Regents. Use of said jingle started in France in the end of the 1970s, and then emerged to other parts of Europe and French-Canada by the start of the 1990s. They tout the product as an "always on the go and ready for anything" snack cheese.
The advertising for Babybel in the UK in the late 1990s and early 2000s had the slogan "Too tasty to share".
As of 2012, a recording of the song "Get in Line" by I'm from Barcelona has been used in their adverts, where the band rerecorded the song with a children's choir. In August 2012, there was controversy over its promotional use of the French slogan "Des vacances de malade mental" ("having a mental holiday", or literally "holidaying like a mentally ill person") which was deemed offensive to people with learning difficulties or mental illnesses. [15] [16]
Edam is a semi-hard cheese that originated in the Netherlands, and is named after the town of Edam in the province of North Holland. Edam is traditionally sold in flat-ended spheres with a pale yellow interior and a coat, or rind, of red paraffin wax. Edam ages and travels well, and does not spoil; it only hardens. These qualities made it the world's most popular cheese between the 14th and 18th centuries, both at sea and in remote colonies.
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The Bel Group is a multinational cheese marketer centered in France.
Évron is a commune in the Mayenne department in north-western France. On 1 January 2019, the former communes Châtres-la-Forêt and Saint-Christophe-du-Luat were merged into Évron. Évron is noted for the Basilica of Notre-Dame de l'Épine, formerly the church of the suppressed Évron Abbey, with 13th-century wall paintings and Aubusson tapestries. The nave and tower of the church date from the 11th century; the rest of the structure dates from the 18th century