New solution capable of accelerating Danish cheese production
Danbo cheese is one of Denmark’s most popular cheeses. A cow’s cheese, it often has caraway seeds added. Under normal conditions, it usually takes around a month to ferment.
But now, researchers from the DTU National Food Institute have found out a way to cut this fermentation time down to just a few days.
Cheese in general usually takes at least a month to ferment, with some cheeses taking up to a year. So, a technique that cuts down this time to just days could be very useful if applied on a wider scale. This would also make cheese production more sustainable, as fermentation requires storing cheese in a very cold room, which consumes a lot of energy.
The cheese-ripening process
“Cheese ripening has been described as the most costly part of cheese manufacturing (if disregarding production of milk),” associate professor Christian Solem, one of the researchers behind the project, told FoodNavigator.
“In order to ripen cheese, you need to keep it in a ripening facility for a long time, which is costly for various reasons. There are inventory costs because you cannot sell your product for months.
Could this new technique revolutionise cheese production? GettyImages/StockPlanets
“The ripening facility is expensive to keep running (especially these days, with high energy prices), as you need to maintain certain temperatures and the moisture content of the air should also be controlled.”
As well as taking up a lot of time, and consuming a lot of energy, there are other problems with traditional Danbo ripening methods. “There is also the risk of spoilage! Mould growth is always undesired, as these produce various toxins, some of which can cause cancer,” Solem told us. “Faster ripening means less opportunity for moulds to grow (they grow slowly).”
So, as well as improving sustainability, the DTU National Food Institute’s new method could also reduce health risks.
How it works
Danbo cheese is a surface-ripened cheese, meaning that…
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