CRITICAL REACTIONS IN RIPENING OF CHEESES - A KINETIC-ANALYSIS

A mathematical model has been developed for the key reactions taking p lace during cheese ripening. It includes growth and lysis of cells in the cheese matrix, cell-wall bound proteinases and intracellular pepti dases that are released into cheese upon cell lysis, and the productio n of peptides and amino acids from casein in cheese. The model paramet ers have been estimated using published experimental data for cheddar cheese, and model simulations have been conducted to suggest effective means of reducing ripening times of cheeses. The time required for ri pening of cheeses can be significantly reduced by carefully controllin g the cell numbers at the beginning of cheese ripening and their prote inase and peptidase activities.