Cheddar cheese flavor

Aston, J. W. and Dulley, J. R. 1982. Cheddar cheese flavor. Aust. J. Dairy Technol. 37, 59-64. 

Dacre, J. C. 1953. Cheddar cheese flavor and its relation to tyramine production by lactic acid bacteria. J. Dairy Res. 20, 217-223. 

Manning, D. J. (1978). Cheddar cheese flavor studies I. Production of volatiles and development of flavor during ripening.. Dairy Res. 45,479-490. 

Arbige, M.V., Freund, P.R., Silver, S.C., Zelko, J.T. 1986. Novel lipase for Cheddar cheese flavor development. Food Technol. 40(4), 91-96, 98. 

Chapman, H.R., Sharpe, M.E., Law, B.A. 1976. Some effects of low-temperature storage of milk on cheese production and Cheddar cheese flavor. Dairy Ind. Int. 41, 42-45. 

Cheese/hutter flavor. Pregastric lipases, have, been used for years to intensify flavor in Menzyme-modified cheese , and for an intensified butter flavor in lipolyzed butter. Generally the fatty acid residues that need to be split off (to generate the right flavor) are the short chain fatty acids, especially the C to C-jq acids typical of Italian cheeses. The butyric acids are produced from butterfat more specifically by newly developed lipases (really esterases) from Mucor meihei and a very new one, from Aspergillus oryzae, especially for cheddar cheese flavor development. The latter enzyme is marketed under the name Flavor Age (4). Flavors produced in this manner are used widely in cheese-flavored snack foods the value of the intensified cheese flavors is on the order of 50 million, but the. value of the enzymes employed is only about 2-3 million. 

Methanethiol has been found to be correlated with the development of Cheddar cheese flavor by Manning and coworkers (37, 39, 40), and both nonenzymic (22) and enzymic generation of methanethiol have been proposed as the source of this compound in Cheddar cheese (46). Although the correlation of methanethiol to Cheddar flavor appears statistically valid, difficulties have been encountered in explaining the nature of its flavor-conferring properties in cheese. In addition, uniform production of methanethiol is difficult to achieve commercially, and the rate of its natural formation in accelerated-ripening may not be suitable for achieving typical Cheddar flavors (47, 48). 

In conclusion, these investigations have shown that methanethiol generation by methioninase has potential applications in the development of cheese flavors as well as other for other foods. The use of fat encapsulated enzyme systems functioned well in experimental cheeses, and their use should provide assistance in controlled delivery of methanethiol into food systems during further efforts to elucidate the complex nature of Cheddar cheese flavor. 

Lactate in cheese may be oxidized to acetate. Pediococci produce 1 mol of acetate and 1 mol of CO2 and consume 1 mol of O2 per mole of lactate utilized (Thomas et al, 1985). The concentration of lactate in cheese far exceeds that required for optimal oxidation, and lactate is not oxidized until all sugars have been exhausted. The oxidation of lactate to acetate in cheese depends on the NSLAB population and on the availability of O2, which is determined by the size of the block and the oxygen permeability of the packaging material (Thomas, 1987). Acetate, which may also be produced by starter bacteria from lactose (Thomas et al., 1979) or citrate or from amino acids by starter bacteria and lactobacilli (Nakae and Elliott, 1965), is usually present at fairly high concentrations in Cheddar cheese and is considered to contribute to cheese flavor, although high concentrations may cause off-flavors (see Aston and Dulley, 1982). Thus, the oxidation of lactate to acetate probably contributes to Cheddar cheese flavor. 

A number of intra- and intervarietal comparisons of cheese volatiles have been published. An early example is that of Manning and Moore (1979) who analyzed head-space volatiles of nine fairly closely related varieties considerable intervarietal differences were evident but the four samples of Cheddar also differed markedly. The intensity of cheese flavor was reported to be related to the concentration of sulfur compounds (peaks 1 and 2) 2-pentanone was also considered to be important for Cheddar cheese flavor. 

Sulfur compounds have long been considered as contributors to Cheddar cheese flavor. Some strains of Lc. lactis ssp. cremoris, but not Lc. lactis ssp. lactis, can absorb glutathione (y-Glu-Cys-Gly GSH) from the growth medium (Fernandes and Steele, 1993). Release of GSH into the cheese on cell lysis may affect the redox potential (Eh) of cheese, and hence the concentration of thiol compounds. Cheesemaking studies using starter strains that accumulate glutathione or those that do not are warranted. 

McGugan, W. A. (1975). Cheddar cheese flavor. A review of current progress. J. Agric. Food Chem. 23,1047-1050. 

If one is considering a study of desirable flavor, the task can become very difficult. For example, what if one was asked to obtain an aroma profile of aged Cheddar cheese Cheddar cheese flavor varies around the world, and there is absolutely no consensus as to what is a typical Cheddar cheese. Sample selection becomes arbitrary and is left to the prejudices of the researcher. 

Lamparsky, D., I. Klimes, Cheddar cheese flavor its formation in light of new analytical results, in Flavour 81, P. Schreier, Ed., deGrayter, Berlin, 1981, p. 557. Berger, R.G., Aroma Biotechnology, Springer, Berlin, 1995, p. 240. 

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