Novel methodology for the in situ assessment of CO2 production rate and its application to anaerobic ripened cheese. (December 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Acerbi, F.; Guillard, V.; Aliani, M.; Guillaume, C.; Gontard, N.
• Is Part Of: Food research international. Volume 78(2015:Dec.)
• Page Start: 295
• Page End: 301
• Publication Date: 2015-12
• Subjects: Carbon dioxide -- Cheese -- CO2 production rate -- Propionic acid fermentation; Food -- Analysis -- Periodicals; Food industry and trade -- Periodicals; Food industry and trade -- Canada -- Periodicals; Food Technology -- Periodicals; Food -- Periodicals; Food-Processing Industry -- Periodicals; Aliments -- Industrie et commerce -- Périodiques; Aliments -- Industrie et commerce -- Canada -- Périodiques; Aliments -- Recherche -- Périodiques; Food industry and trade; Canada; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 664.005
• DOI: 10.1016/j.foodres.2015.09.030
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0963-9969

Abstract

Abstract: CO2 is produced by many microorganisms present in cheese and it can affect cheese quality both during processing and storage. The knowledge of the extent of CO2 production by cheese microorganism (CO2 production rate coefficients) may be used to predict gas exchange in cheese/packaging systems, helping dairy industries in the right choice of the packaging (higher/lower gas permeability) and mastering of cheese ripening. However very few coefficients for CO2 production rate have been published and the ones assessed in vitro (not inside real food) may not well describe the activity of the microorganisms in situ. We have therefore developed a methodology for the in situ assessment of CO2 production rate and applied it to cheese with propionic acid fermentation. The proposed methodology is based on infra-red measurement of CO2 and it allows measuring its accumulation up to 1% with 0.001% resolution, while monitoring the level of oxygen. The method showed a good repeatability, with a low coefficient of variation within samples (6.6%) and between samples (8.4%) compared to 10–30% between samples found in literature. The method was compared with a gas chromatography based method, which is also described. Highlights: A novel method for in situ assessment of CO2 production in cheese is proposed. The infra-red based method is compared with a gas chromatography technique. Variance of our method (8.4%) is lower compared to current methods (10–30%). The proposed method was successfully applied to measure cheese fermentation.