A COMPARISON OF THE FLAVOR AND TEXTURE OF CHEDDAR CHEESE OF FACTORY OR FARMHOUSE ORIGIN

Diversity in the flavour and texture of Cheddar cheese was studied in 34 samples of factory or farmhouse origin. Sensory profiles were measu red using an integrated Design, Data capture and Sensory Profiling Pro tocol (DDASPP). The main differences in character of the cheese were b etween the sub-set of farmhouse cheeses manufactured from raw milk and cheese made from pasteurised milk. Raw milk cheese was more intensely flavoured than conventional product, but was notable for elevated rat ings for atypical flavours such as rancid, bitter and unclean. In gene ral, farmhouse cheese showed excessively wide variations in compositio n which were also associated with atypical flavour sr texture. Within factory-made products there was little distinction between samples of Scottish, English, Irish and Canadian origin. However, mature samples of New Zealand Cheddar were of a slightly different character. No stro ng relations between the sensory properties and composition of the che ese could be deduced. Nevertheless, as expected, the extent of proteol ysis and moisture in non-fat solids content of the samples were associ ated with differences in flavour and texture. (C) 1997 Elsevier Scienc e Ltd. All rights reserved.