Cheese books- Website

I came across a useful website recently which lists all books on cheese currently in print.

Methods and issues in cheese authenticity studies: a workshop

Methods and issues in cheese authenticity studies: a workshop.

4/9/2009 – 5/9/2009
Sala Convegni, Banca della Campania
Collina Liguorini, Avellino (Italia)
http://www.isa.cnr.it/ micheeses@isa.cnr.it

Authenticity and traceability are key issues for the protection of traditional food products, and EU and member states have developed quality branding schemes and specific regulation to this end. Recent scandals connected to frauds related to origin, authenticity, safety, labelling of some PDO and non-PDO cheeses have weakened consumers’ confidence in quality branding schemes and caused severe economical damage to producers. The objective of this meeting, organized by the Food Science Institute of the National Research Council of Italy, is to present to researchers, public quality control agencies, cheesemakers organizations, an overview of analytical, economic and technical issues on cheese authenticity and traceability.

Preliminary programme.

Session 1. Invited speakers. 4/9/2009 9.00-18.30
1. Welcome addresses: Prof. R. Coppola, Director, ISA-CNR, Prof. E. Parente, Dip. Biologia, Università degli Studi della Basilicata, Italy
2. Factors that affect the quality of cheese - Prof. P. F. Fox, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland
3. Classification schemes for cheese - Prof. P. McSweeney, Dept. of Food and Nutritional Sciences, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland
4. Protein and peptide composition analysed by CE, HPLC and LC-MS - Prof. Y. Ardö, Dept. of Food Science, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
5. Evaluation of dairy products authenticity by spectroscopic methods - Dr. D. Andueza and Dr. B. Martin, Herbivore Research Unit, INRA Clermont-Ferrand Theix, France.
6. Microbial fingerprinting and authenticity of cheese - Dr. D. Ercolini, Dip. Scienza degli Alimenti, Università degli Studi “Federico II”, Napoli, Italy.
7. Immunochemical methods for cheese authenticity studies – Dr. R. Pizzano – ISA-CNR, Avellino, Italy.
8. Small molecules for the evaluation of cheese authenticity - Dr. M. C. Messia, DISTAAM, Università degli Studi del Molise, Italy
9. Statistical methods for cheese authenticity studies – Prof. E. Parente, Dip. Biologia, Università degli Studi della Basilicata, Potenza, Italy
10. The Role of the Italian Central Inspectorate for Food Quality in the protection of food authenticity - Dr. F. Fuselli, Ispettorato Centrale per il Controllo della Qualità dei Prodotti Agroalimentari, Rome, Italy

Session 2. 5/9/2009 9.00-13.30
Oral communications (max 10, 10 min each). Poster session
Round table: cheese authenticity and traceability, technical, economical, sociological and legislative aspects.

Language.
The official languages of the workshop are English and Italian. Simultaneous translation will be available on request.

Poster and oral communications.
Instructions for submission of abstracts for posters and oral communications will be published in the second circular.

Fees.
The registration fee (200 €) must be paid before July 31st, 2009. We anticipate that registration will be open from April 15th, 2009

Scientific Committee.
Prof. Raffaele Coppola, Direttore ISA-CNR, Avellino, Italy; Prof. Eugenio Parente, Università degli Studi della Basilicata, Potenza, Italy; Prof. Gianfranco Panfili, Università degli Studi del Molise, Campobasso, Italy
Technical secretariat. ISA-CNR Avellino, Dott.ssa Manuela Oliva , Dott. Luigi Cipriano, Sig. Antonio Ottombrino, Rag. Gennaro Russo, Dott. Patrizio Tremonte

Registration information.
If you are interested in receiving the second circular, please complete the form below for your data, copy and paste in the body of an E-mail to micheeses@isa.cnr.it
Title, Name and Middle Initial, Surname
Institution
Street address, ZIP/Postal code, Town, Country
Phone number
Fax number
E-mail
I plan / do not plan to submit an abstract. The tentative title is…..

Cheese... but not as we know it

A present (photo) from a visiting student from Norway reacquainted me with a distinctive group of Norwegian unripened "cheese" varieties which are made by thermal evaporation, concentration and crystallisation of whey to which may be added skim milk or cream. These cheeses (collectively referred to as Brunost, meaning brown cheese, and including Geitost, Mesost/Myseost [popular in Sweden and Denmark, respectively], and Gudbrandsdalsost) are characterised by a smooth, creamy body and a sweet, caramel-like taste. Unusually for dairy products, the Maillard reaction is encouraged (the only other example that immediately springs to mind where extensive non-enzymatic browning is desirable in dairy products is the Argentinean dessert confection, Dulche de Leche). It is arguable whether Norwegian whey cheeses should be called "cheese" as they are really fat/protein-enriched by-products of concentrated heated whey. The vast majority of cheeses involve dehydration of milk by controlled syneresis of rennet- or acid-induced casein gels. In the case of these products, dehydration is achieved quite differently (by thermal evaporation) and their manufacture involves extensive lactose crystallisation. Still, to paraphrase the Bard, in this case, a cheese by any other name would taste as sweet!

Further reading:

Fox, PF, TP Guinee, TM Cogan and PLH McSweeney (2000). Fundamentals of Cheese Science. Aspen Publ., Gaithersburg, MD.

Kosikowski, FV and VV Mistry (1997). Cheese and Fermented Milk Foods (3rd edn, 2 vols), FV Kosikowski LLC, Westport, CT.

Buenos Dias from Buenos Aires

The IV Congreso Internacional de Marketing y Tecnologia de Quesos was held from June 25 to 27 in the wonderful, exciting and vibrant city of Buenos Aires (and amongst my favourite places to visit in the world). The meeting was sponsored principally by Chr Hansen and Fepale (Federacion Panamericana de Lecheria) and included some very useful presentations on cheese science, technology and marketing. Inter alia, Hansen's Chy-Max M, a most interesting coagulant on which we did some work recently, was introduced to the South American market.

It was nice to meet again so many cheese people from Argentina and elsewhere in Latin America. Historically, the Argentine cheese industry was influenced heavily by dairy immigrants from Italy and hence many cheeses of Argentina show a strong family resemblance to Italian varieties. For example, Reggianito Argentino (below) is a tasty variant of Parmesan.

Apart from work, I had a chance to tour Buenos Aires and, at a reception at Chr Hansen's facility, saw the tango danced in its native habitat! Uncle Chris's hospitality was exemplary.