ACHIEVEMENT OF A EUROPEAN-WIDE HARMONIZED METHODOLOGY FOR SENSORY CHARACTERIZATION OF HARD AND SEMIHARD CHEESE

The Federal Dairy Research Centre Kiel was involved in a 2-year Europe an research project concerned with the development of methodology for comparison of sensory assessment of hard and semi-hard cheese across i nternational frontiers. Institutes in Denmark, France, Italy, Norway, Switzerland, UK and Germany have participated in this work. The main o bjectives of this project are: (i) Assess the strengths and weaknesses of different sensory methodologies for characterization of cheese, (i i) determine similarities between sensory vocabularies and (iii) devis e a compromise strategy for sensory assessment of hard and semi-hard c heese. In addition, it is of interest to find sensory key attributes o f hard and semi-hard cheese. In a first collaborative ring trial, 12 E uropean hard and semi-hard cheeses were assessed according to the sens ory methodology normally applied in the respective countries. In a sec ond collaborative ring trial the same cheeses were characterized accor ding to a harmonized protocol with a common sensory vocabulary. The re sults of the Kiel-panel are presented. The second collaborative ring t rial has enabled considerable progress to be achieved in developing a European methodology. The resulting discussions, however, have shown t hat there exist not only technical, but also cultural differences in w eighting sensory criteria of cheese samples in Europe. In harmonizing sensory methods across international frontiers, one has to take into a ccount both: (i) scientific technical parameters as well as (ii) centu ries-old traditions in Food production and eating habits.