NIZO Food Research, PO Box 20, 6710 BA Ede, the Netherlands.
J Dairy Sci. 2009 Dec;92(12):5868-82. doi: 10.3168/jds.2009-2372.
Cheese making is a process in which enzymatic coagulation of milk is followed by protein separation, carbohydrate removal, and an extended bacterial fermentation. The number of variables in this complex process that influence cheese quality is so large that the developments of new manufacturing protocols are cumbersome. To reduce screening costs, several models have been developed to miniaturize the cheese manufacturing process. However, these models are not able to accommodate the throughputs required for systematic screening programs. Here, we describe a protocol that allows the parallel manufacturing of approximately 600 cheeses in individual cheese vats each with individual process specifications. Protocols for the production of miniaturized Gouda- and Cheddar-type cheeses have been developed. Starting with as little as 1.7 mL of milk, miniature cheeses of about 170 mg can be produced and they closely resemble conventionally produced cheese in terms of acidification profiles, moisture and salt contents, proteolysis, flavor profiles, and microstructure. Flavor profiling of miniature cheeses manufactured with and without mixed-strain adjunct starter cultures allowed the distinguishing of the different cheeses. Moreover, single-strain adjunct starter cultures engineered to overexpress important flavor-related enzymes revealed effects similar to those described in industrial cheese. Benchmarking against industrial cheese produced from the same raw materials established a good correlation between their proteolytic degradation products and their flavor profiles. These miniature cheeses, referred to as microcheeses, open new possibilities to study many aspects of cheese production, which will not only accelerate product development but also allow a more systematic approach to investigate the complex biochemistry and microbiology of cheese making.
干酪制作是一个酶凝乳随后进行蛋白质分离、碳水化合物去除和延长细菌发酵的过程。在这个复杂的过程中，影响奶酪质量的变量非常多，以至于新的制造方案的开发非常繁琐。为了降低筛选成本，已经开发了几种模型来使奶酪制造过程小型化。然而，这些模型不能适应系统筛选计划所需的吞吐量。在这里，我们描述了一种允许在每个具有单独工艺规格的单独奶酪罐中并行制造约 600 个奶酪的方案。已经开发出了生产微型高达干酪和切达干酪的方案。从少至 1.7 毫升的牛奶开始，可以生产出约 170 毫克的微型奶酪，并且在酸化曲线、水分和盐含量、蛋白水解、风味曲线和微观结构方面与常规生产的奶酪非常相似。使用和不使用混合菌株添加剂发酵剂生产的微型奶酪的风味分析允许区分不同的奶酪。此外，过表达重要风味相关酶的单菌株添加剂发酵剂工程菌株揭示了与工业奶酪中描述的相似的效果。与使用相同原料生产的工业奶酪进行基准测试建立了它们的蛋白水解降解产物与其风味曲线之间的良好相关性。这些微型奶酪，称为微奶酪，为研究奶酪生产的许多方面开辟了新的可能性，这不仅将加速产品开发，而且还允许更系统地研究奶酪制作的复杂生物化学和微生物学。
