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Brewing, Drink and Dairy Processing News
News Release from: Food Processing Faraday Partnership | Subject: Cheese making
Edited by the Processingtalk Editorial
Team on 08 June 2007
The safety of cheese made from
unpasteurised milk
Traditional cheesemakers value the flavour that can be obtained by the use of unpasteurised milk: the Safecheese project aims to discover a natural culture which will eliminate pathogenic bacteria
The majority of cheese is made from pasteurised milk because heat treatment offers an additional control point to eliminate food-borne pathogenic bacteria The Safecheese project aims to discover a naturally occurring culture which will prevent pathogen survival whilst generating the lactic acid that is essential in the first step of cheesemaking
This article was originally published on Processingtalk on 2 May 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
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By having such a culture, cheesemakers could use unpasteurised milk and have an additional security barrier against the survival of undesirable organisms in their product.
Lactic acid bacteria are everyday constituents of food and are responsible for the taste and texture of dairy products like yogurt and cheese and also for certain meat products like salami.
Preliminary work by the Norwegian centre for food research, MATFORSK, has shown that some lactic acid bacteria can kill the pathogens which could be contaminants of unpasteurised milk.
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The Safecheese project will examine lactic acid bacteria used by cheesemakers in 6 European countries and test their ability not only to prevent the growth of pathogens, but also to kill undesirable bacteria during cheese maturation.
Sensory analysis will be carried out on cheese made with the protective cultures identified in the research because it is essential to know that texture and flavour are not adversely affected.
Consumer attitudes to cheese made with protective cultures will be assessed in Norway and Italy.
In addition, the project will link into another European project to study consumer attitudes to traditional cheese and to evaluate the opportunities for innovation in a range of traditional foods.
The Food Processing KTN is the project partner responsible for collecting cheese samples from the UK and also for disseminating new learning from the project through training events.
The Blagdon company, Northumberland Cheese, is one of the European group of cheesemakers in the project, and research activities will also be carried out by PERA.
The first meeting of the project was held in Norway at the beginning of February, one of the highlights of which was a tasting session at which over 20 different cheeses were available.
The consortium will be collecting samples of curd and of cheese from which lactic acid bacteria can be isolated.
If you are interested in the project and would be willing to provide samples for testing, please contact Jacqui Noon or Ken Johnston at the Food Processing Faraday Partnership.
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