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CBD Cheese Aims to Do the Body Good
Infused mozzarella debuts in Illinois, more markets to come. Elevated Cow from Caputo Cheese is one of the more interesting CBD-infused products to enter the marketplace of late.
Jennifer Strailey
May 6, 2021
2 Min Read
Photograph: Shutterstock
While a bevy of new CBD beverages have launched of late, one of the more interesting CBD products to enter the marketplace is Elevated Cow. The made-to-order fresh mozzarella infused with CBD from Caputo Cheese in Melrose Park, Ill., underwent a soft release last year, but COVID put the breaks on a bigger rollout.
While the FDA has yet to approve CBD in food, as Caputo Cheese is based in Illinois where marijuana is legal, the cheesemaker is able to sell the cheese exclusively in the state.
Available in Bocconcini, Fettine slices and Ovoline, Elevated Cow is the brainchild of Natale Caputo. In 2018, he sought to make “a cheese with a little bit more—a cheese that didn’t only taste good but did good,” says the Caputo website. “Based on his own positive experiences with CBD,” he started infusing it into the company’s fresh mozzarella. “After rigorous lab tests (and many pizza demos), Nat put his stamp of approval on the cheese and began working to make CBD mozzarella available to the cheese-loving public.”
Elevated Cow has a guarantee of at least 5 milligrams of CBD per 1 ounce of fresh mozzarella, says the company.
“To ensure quality, the CBD we bring in is independently lab-tested before being infused in the fresh curd,” Agela Abdullah, marketing director for Caputo Cheese, told WGB. “To ensure accurate dosage we send the finished cheese out to an independent lab for results. Those results are then posted on our website. Our packaging has a QR code, and when the customer scans the code it brings you to the page with all the lab results so the customer can be sure of how much CBD they’re ingesting.”
As the CBD is infused in the mozzarella, there’s no aftertaste or change in the cheese’s aroma, nor any impact to the quality of the product or how it acts, continues Abdullah.
While Abdullah says having a big release of Elevated Cow during the pandemic would have been “like screaming into the void,” as the country moves into the next, less restrictive phase of the pandemic and, more importantly, once the FDA approves CBD in food, Caputo plans to expand into other markets.
