Effect of milk composition and herd management conditions on the characteristics of farmhouse saint-nectaire cheese.

This study was performed in 23 farms producing raw milk saint-nectaire chee ses, chosen on their good processing ability. Chemical and sensory analysis were done on 67 cheeses made in these farms during winter. Important varia bility of chemical and sensory characteristics was observed between cheeses . Six main groups of cheeses were identified, based on sensory characterist ics, texture and flavour descriptors being the most discriminant. Chemical and bacteriological characteristics of milk were not very different between groups. Differences between groups were associated either to processing pa rameters (type of starters) or feeding conditions of the cows (concentrate proportion in the diet). The type of roughage (hay vs fermented roughage) w as not different between groups of cheeses. (C) Inra/Elsevier, Paris.