CSK and NIZO: new flavours in cheese
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Cheese starter cultures
The selection of starter cultures for cheese is one of the key activities for influencing the flavour formation in cheese production. CSK, a major dairy ingredient supplier including production of starter cultures, consulted NIZO to get a better insight into the effect of individual strains and mixed-strain starters on cheese flavour formation.
MicroCheese
The MicroCheese model developed at NIZO as part of the research programme of the Kluyver Center for Genomics of Industrial Fermentation was applied for the analysis of 15 mesophilic starter lactic acid bacteria of CSK.
Flavour formation
NIZO produced Gouda-type micro cheeses (0.2 g each) with these starters, and six different conditions, regarding salt concentration, ripening temperature and lysis after acidification, were applied. After 13 weeks of ripening, analysis of volatile flavour compounds was successfully performed and cluster data analysis tools were applied for efficient evaluation of the results. This provided insight into the effect of the different starters and process conditions on the formation of flavour compounds and their level in the cheese.
Improve your culture selection
This study shows the applicability of the MicroCheese system for screening and comparing many cultures and conditions in the cheese environment simultaneously. The model enables targeted selection by CSK of strains with desired properties.