Faster eye formation and mild flavor in Swiss cheese

Due to a growing demand for sliced cheese products, Swiss cheese makers must ensure fast and controlled eye formation (formation of holes) in cheese types such as Maasdammer and Emmenthal. On top of this technological request, consumers prefer a distinctive nutty flavor together with a light sweet mouthfeel.

To respond to these trends, Chr. Hansen now introduces the new propionic (organic acid) culture OpenIT^TM PS-60.

The OpenIT^TM PS culture series effectively provides the typical distinctive mild sweetness to propionic cheeses, in addition to a powerful gas release allowing for perfect eye formation.

Exquisite taste – at low cost
“The key properties of the new culture, PS-60, are its capabilities of controlling and standardizing the fermentation process. The benefits are both a high and fast gas formation—and thus a short ripening time—and a well balanced sweet, nutty flavor with low pungency due to its low lipolytic activity. These properties have been confirmed in customer trials,” explains Chr. Hansen’s Anne-Claire Bauquis, Marketing Manager, Cheese Cultures.

“In addition the new culture is cost-efficient due to the high concentration and high activity per cell. One F-DVS^® 500 unit carton is normally enough for the inoculation of 10,000-15,000 litres of milk. The eye formation should be effective after 14-20 days depending on the ripening conditions.”

“Lastly, PS-60 is a fast lactate fermenting culture, robust to different ripening parameters. Good growth is recorded even in difficult conditions – at low temperature as well as in high salt or low pH environments,” concludes Anne-Claire Bauquis.

DVS^® benefits: Convenience, consistency and control
The PS-60 Direct Vat Set^® culture is available in frozen format in carton sizes fitted to the average vat sizes of the target dairies. The Direct Vat Set^® production technology offers a number of advantages in terms of flexibility of use, consistent performance, possibility of using customized culture blends, and no investment in bulk starter equipment.