Type a word to start your search

Loading

Influence of packaging on the conservation of surface-ripened soft cheeses.

In a changing market, following various Canada-EU, -Asia and -USA trade agreements, dairy sector and Quebec's fine cheeses are under pressure. Cheese makers will have to use different strategies to stand out. Packaging innovation is essential to maintain and even improve the distribution and marketing of dairy products. The packaging can indeed contribute to optimizing the life of the cheeses making it possible to limit the food wastage and the industrial losses. Among the different cheese varieties , surface-ripened soft cheeses evolve and develop their typical characteristics in the packaging. This component is critical for the proper marketing of the product. Cheesemakers struggle to find the optimal packaging for their cheeses. Lack of in-depth knowledge of the influence of characteristics such as the rate of oxygen transmission, the rate of transmission to water vapor, the atmospheric composition of the packaging or the material used for packaging on the cheese, it is difficult to have optimal conditioning without going through several phases of trials and errors. In this project, soft cheeses will serve as a model for the development of packaging.
This subject has been studied very little in the scientific literature. Research has shown the impact of the water vapor transmission rate on ripe cheese ripening without demonstrating the effect of the oxygen transmission rate or the material used. A study has shown that the use of a Passive Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAPP) has the potential to improve the conservation of a rind cheese. This technique is widely used to conserve plants that consume oxygen and release CO2. The impact of its use on surface ripened soft cheeses is poorly known, despite its potential for optimizing its conservation.
This general lack of knowledge limits the development of optimal and original packaging for cheeses. By comparing a cheese packaged in packaging with different specific characteristics, it will be possible to isolate the influence of these critical parameters. The characterization of MAPp packaging in this study would confirm that optimal conservation is achieved by controlling the atmospheric composition around the cheese. As ripening is done mainly by the microbial ecosystem, metagenomics will be used in parallel with conventional physicochemical analyzes to precisely detect the influence of packaging characteristics on this critical step. These experiments will highlight the influence of packaging on the conservation of surface-ripened soft cheese. The development of new optimal packaging will be improved.

Steve Labrie

Université Laval

CRIBIQ's contribution

$ 112 126


Partners

Industrial participants :

  • Novalait

QPRI*
*Quebec public research institutes :

  • Université Laval
  • ITEGA