Milkfat essential for the development of cheddar cheese flavour

Compared to milk protein and carbohydrate, milkfat undergoes little change during the ripening of cheddar cheese. Perhaps as a consequence, the role o f milkfat in cheddar flavour development has received little attention, whi le cheese proteolysis and glycolysis have been extensively investigated. Th is is despite the well-established fact that fat (milkfat) reduced cheddar cheese has low flavour. Wijesundera and Drury (1999) have shown that little or no cheddar flavour d evelops in cheese where the milkfat is totally replaced with a vegetable fa t. Ln this study, we compared flavour development in cheddar-type cheeses i n which the milkfat was replaced with differing amounts of vegetable fat.