Project: Towards the next generation CHeeses: Engineering of excellent Flavours for healthy cheeses
General description_x000D_Lowering fat, salt and sugar content in foods is stimulated by national and European governments because of the link to chronic diseases. The industry has already taken important steps, however, excellent taste of reformulated products is key in ensuring consumer acceptance and finally increasing this consumer market of healthy products. _x000D_High-tech SME NIZO food research and the European cheese producing companies Valio, TINE & DMK will enter a joint collaboration with the goal to perform research and to get access to technologies that will lead to healthy (low fat) cheeses with excellent flavours that fit within the delicacy market segments of the participant's respective markets within a period of 2 years after the end of this collaboration. NIZO aims at developing and licensing strains/cultures for the cheese Ps within a period of 2 years. Ps will use one or more existing culture houses for the commercial production of cultures based on these strains and enzymes. The participants do not share geographical markets._x000D__x000D_Market background_x000D_Reduced fat and low fat Gouda-type cheeses are currently available on the European markets but typically have poor qualities regarding to flavour and other functionalities. This prevents these cheeses to be accepted by the European consumers as delicacy or premium products and at the same be regarded as healthy. Such cheeses, however, are considered as the 'next generation' of cheeses._x000D_Cheese makers Valio, TINE and DMK have introduced low fat and low salt cheese products on the market in recent years and now will make the step to the 'next generation' of Gouda-type cheeses. _x000D__x000D_Technical background_x000D_Cheese production and ripening are complex biochemical processes that are influenced by enzymes from the milk, the coagulant, process conditions and starters used. The starter lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and the non-starter lactic acid bacteria (NSLAB) are thought to be fundamental for the creation of flavours in cheese. Also enzymes that can be added to the process are known to be essential for the proper development of cheese flavours. For development of a next generation of cheeses with excellent flavour, optimal utilization of (culture) biodiversity and therefore building and characterizing of a suitable extensive culture collection is essential. _x000D__x000D_Project Goal_x000D_With this knowledge the participating companies will gain from this project they can directly, in-house or bilateral, focus on actual cheese development trajectories with the ultimate goal to speed up the internal R&D processes, New Product Development (NPD), become forerunners in the healthy cheese market segment and boost the market share of healthy cheeses. _x000D_Ps will jointly select strains and enzymes and mixes thereof from companies own collection, the NIZO culture collection and strains and enzyme collection of commercial producers (this selection based on in vitro (pre-) testing on suitability) and apply these in NIZO’s efficient cheese model systems MicroCheese and ScreenCheese for further screening. This will yield detailed instrumental, enzymatic and sensory data for flavour relevant properties. A common flavour language will be agreed upon by Ps. The pool of shared knowledge obtained in this way will be truly comprehensive due to the joint multiparty approach._x000D__x000D_Project consortium_x000D_NIZO food research B.V.:_x000D_NIZO is a high tech SME with about 150 FTE and spends about 30% of its revenue on fundamental research in precompetitive programmes in which it invests. NIZO has a culture collection with a large biodiversity containing up to 3,000 strains. Furthermore NIZO offers access to advanced cheese model systems, available for assessing the performance of cultures in real food products, which are an excellent basis to support Ps in selecting new cultures and therefore in (new) product development. In addition, NIZO has state-of-the-art analytical and sensory tools for evaluating cultures, enzymes and model cheeses. NIZO’s aim is to earn back the investments done in this project by extra Contract Research and commercial license agreements for its strains._x000D__x000D_Cheese producers (Valio, TINE, DMK):_x000D_The cheese producers are considered medium-sized players in the European Cheese market and have advanced knowledge on product development and pilot trial production and know specific customer demands from their specific markets regarding health, taste and texture. These producers will test selected strains & enzymes within their cheese making facilities and perform sensory testing on existing cheeses (WP1), ScreenCheeses (WP 4) and pilot-scale cheeses (WP 5). All cheese producers have their own strains that will be included in the screening activities. Cheese producers aim to earn back their investment in this consortium via entering new cheeses with excellent flavour on their current and new markets within Europe making them forerunners in the healthy cheese segment.
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Acronym
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CHEF
(Reference Number: 8454)
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Duration
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02/09/2013 - 31/08/2016
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Project Topic
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High-tech SME NIZO food research and the medium-sized European cheese producers Valio, TINE & DMK will jointly perform research and get access to technologies leading to healthy cheeses with excellent flavours that will be considered the 'next generation' cheeses in Europe.
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Network
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Eurostars
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Call
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Eurostars Cut-Off 10
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Project partner
