In 2009, the worldwide retail market for cheese was valued at €87.7bn, with an expected increase of more than 9% over the next five years. Equating to 15.9m tonnes, this is about 2.2kg of cheese per person on the planet (according to Euromonitor).
For manufacturers, growth is being determined by three main drivers:
The challenge is reinforced by the sheer scope of flavours, textures and forms making up the cheese category.
It’s thought that cheese was discovered by chance when milk was carried in a traditional vessel made of a sheep’s stomach lining. The rennet (enzyme) from the stomach would have caused the milk to coagulate to a solid gel known as coagulum or curd. Bacteria present in the milk or the environment would then have ripened the cheese, contributing to the texture, taste and aroma of the curd.
By the start of the 20th century, both enzymes and bacterial cultures were starting to be commercially produced for use in the cheesemaking process, writes Cargill Texturizing Solutions business line director Cultures and Enzymes, Gérald Dard. This gave the cheesemaker the ability to produce a particular cheese variety that was uniform in taste, texture, colour, ripening period and shelf life.
In practice, there’s no single system to categorise the world’s cheeses. Cheese can be differentiated by the type of milk used (raw, skimmed or pasteurised) or by the animal it came from (cow, goat, sheep or buffalo). Other descriptions may highlight a mild or intense aroma, or the taste – mild, buttery, spicy, rich, creamy, sharp, salty or subtle.
Ranging from hard to semi-hard, to those cheeses that are so soft they need to be eaten with a spoon, texture and appearance also influence cheese categorisation, with descriptions such as hard, semi-hard, soft, blue and pasta filata commonly used across the industry.
In delivering cheeses with such wide-ranging tastes, textures and appearances, cultures and enzymes play a central role. Without them, the smooth white rind on a Camembert, the high flavours in a Romano or the acidification of a Gorgonzola, would be almost impossible to deliver consistently and safely in modern manufacturing conditions.
The right cultures and enzymes can also help to accelerate the maturation process, reducing production costs. In addition, they play a fundamental role in optimising yield, contributing to quick colouring, preventing the growth of undesirable flora and influencing the overall stability of the final cheese product.
For decades, Cargill has been a supplier of cultures and enzymes to the dairy industry, developing reliable products that deliver the unique functionalities necessary to produce a variety of different cheeses. Whether it’s culture media, direct vat cultures (DVC) or bulk cultures, lipase enzymes or animal and microbial coagulants, Cargill’s portfolio addresses the high performance and food safety requirements of cheese manufacturers.
Acid is essential to the production of safe, high quality cheese. It assists coagulation, promotes syneresis, helps prevent spoilage and pathogenic bacteria from growing, and contributes to cheese texture, flavour and keeping quality.
Cargill’s Ultra-Gro range of DVCs contains bacteria that are highly concentrated during the culture manufacturing process, allowing the manufacturer to add them directly to the cheese production vat, eliminating the preparation and use of the bulk starter systems. Ultra-Gro cultures are used in a variety of cheeses such as munster and Swiss, as well as some stretching cheeses (Pasta Filata).
Alongside Ultra-Gro, Cargill also offers the Bacti-Gro range of bulk cultures. These have lower cell counts because no post-fermentation step is used in production. Therefore, prior to inoculation in the cheese vat, they undergo an intermediate growth step in a starter fermentation tank that contains nutrient media.
Bacti-Gro bulk starter cultures are used in Cheddar, Mozzarella, Talleggio, Feta, Emmental, blue cheeses, Gouda, Edam, Swiss cheeses, Manchego, Barra, Crescenza, and many other kinds of cheeses.
Cargill offers animal-based coagulants and fermentation-derived microbial coagulants within its Chees-Zyme range. Produced via fermentation of certain fungi or yeast, Cargill’s microbial coagulants are free of lipase or amylase activity, necessary for vegetarian/vegan cheeses, and offer excellent cost-in-use performance.
For traditional artisanal cheeses, Cargill also offers a standard range of rennet pastes, which combine both coagulation and flavour development enzymes in one product, or custom-blend pastes to meet individual customer flavour profiles.
Cheese ripening is a complex process, involving many biochemical changes that contribute to the characteristic flavour, body and texture profile of a cheese. Temperature and the duration of cheese ripening must be considered. Ripening time may be as short as three days, as for Mozzarella, or a year or more, as in the case of sharp Cheddar or Parmesan. Some soft-ripened or blue cheeses have additional cultures intentionally introduced before or during ageing to yield more consistent results.
Responding to the increasing demand for industrial cheeses with extra flavour, Cargill offers its Flav-Antage range. Consisting of frozen DVCs (comprising both adjunct cultures and acidifying cultures) and lipase products, Cargill’s Flav-Antage cultures are used in cottage cheese, kefir or quark for example, as well as Cheddar, Gouda, Cacciotta, Mozzarella and others.
Dairy surface or covering cultures, such as Cargill’s Velv-Top range, are selected for high-quality cheeses for their covering and appearance characteristics, as well as their flavouring potential. They are commonly used to give white moulds for brie and camembert (white Penicillium), prominent coloured veins to blue cheese (blue Penicillium) and the rind of smear-ripened cheeses. With their early stage growth, these cultures can also prevent the spread of contaminating flora.
When selecting the starter media, a balance is needed between providing phage protection in the starter tank, while also providing basic food and trace elements for the bacteria to grow.
Cargill’s bulk culture media are recognised for their consistency and developed to ensure that bulk starter cultures perform with optimum functionality. Bactimedia products provide complete nutrition for the bacteria, enabling them to grow to healthy, active levels in the bulk starter tank.
In 2009, the worldwide market for cultures and enzymes for cheese amounted to 245,261 tonnes, which is expected to rise by more than 12% by 2014 (Euromonitor). To capitalise on this market, cheese manufacturers today welcome a total solution concept that improves the quality of their products, while keeping costs low.
Applying extensive technical expertise of culture and enzyme systems, coupled with an in-depth understanding of cheese manufacturing processes and phage management, forms the foundation of Cargill’s offering.
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