Bel Group unveils research project to create digital twin cheese

FRANCE – Bel has taken another step in its digital transformation by unveiling a research project to create the first digital twin of a cheese, developed in partnership with Dassault Systèmes for The Laughing Cow.

According to the company, the digital simulator brings together multiple dimensions of a product in one virtual environment, including ingredients, formulation, physicochemical properties, sensory perception and consumer preferences.

It is designed to shorten development cycles, refine formulations and continuously improve products’ nutritional profiles, sensory experiences and environmental footprints.

Traditionally, food product development has relied on a series of trial-and-error experiments, with recipes and manufacturing conditions varied and then assessed through analysis and tasting.

The digital twin will complement Bel’s expertise with a new simulation environment, allowing teams to explore a wide range of possibilities virtually before selecting the most promising ones for physical trials.

Developed by Bel’s Research, Innovation and Development teams, the technology is expected to be deployed at industrial scale by 2028.

External partners have already brought predictive microbiology solutions and formulation support tools into use in new product development.

This innovation is part of the Group’s broader digital and technological transformation and its ambition to progressively integrate data and artificial intelligence across its value chain, from research and development through to production.

It is grounded in a clear belief: these technologies should enhance human expertise, not replace it, by giving teams new tools to imagine, develop and produce the food of tomorrow.

The project builds on the strategic partnership established with Dassault Systèmes in 2024. Its 3D modeling and digital twin technologies, already used in aerospace, automotive and life sciences, are now being applied to food innovation.

The unveiling of the project coincides with the 100th anniversary of Bel’s Lons-le-Saunier plant, the Group’s historic industrial birthplace and a flagship production site for La Vache qui rit.

Opened in 1926 to support the growth of portioned processed cheese, the site has spent a century bringing together the dairy expertise of France’s Jura region with Bel’s industrial culture and spirit of innovation.

The site is home to the Group’s global center of expertise and innovation in cheese and continues to modernize. The research project to develop the first digital twin of a cheese builds on a century of innovation.

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