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
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E-mail
I plan / do not plan to submit an abstract. The tentative title is…..

Newspaper clipping...

During my recent trip to Argentina, I had a chance to visit briefly the most active dairy research group in Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Santa Fe; mention of the visit was made on the local paper, El Litoral! Now, if only I could understand Spanish...

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.

White brined cheeses, ultrafiltration and tulips...

White brined cheeses, popular throughout the eastern Mediterranean, Balkans and into the Middle East, are characterised by being ripened under brine. Thus, this family have the highest NaCl levels of all cheeses. Often originally made from sheep’s or goats’ milk, white brined cheeses have a soft crumbly texture and a sharp and salty flavour. The best known variety in this family is Greek Feta but similar cheeses are made throughout this region. The milk for white brined cheeses is acidified quickly and the curds are not cooked extensively leading to high moisture. Syneresis in the moulds is thus driven by pH and the fresh cheese is placed into a container with brine (~14% NaCl) before ripening.

Cheesemaking always involves removal of moisture from milk. Nearly always, this is achieved by syneresis of rennet- or acid-induced gels. However, the membrane separation technique ultrafiltration (UF) can be used also. Despite much research, concentration of cheesemilk by UF has found relatively little application in industry, with the exception of the manufacture of some types of white brined cheeses. The milk for such “cast” cheeses is concentrated by UF before renneting. Since little or no whey is lost after renneting and because whey proteins are retained by UF membranes, the cheeses contain whey proteins (thus increasing yield) and much higher levels of residual rennet. However, they tend to ripen more slowly than traditionally made cheeses.

White brined cheeses were put into my mind this week during a very enjoyable visit to Turkey and courses in Hacettepe University, Ankara and Abant Izzet Baysal University, Bolu. In many countries, Feta-type cheeses are used exclusively in salads but they form a more important part of Turkish and neighbouring countries’ cuisine. My thanks must go to Dr Ali Topçu and his colleagues in Ankara for their wonderful hospitality and to the Scientific and Technnological Rsearch Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) for giving me the opportunity to visit Turkey. My trip ended with a short visit to the wonderful, bustling and endlessly fascinating city of Istanbul, which was looking its finest with the sun shining and tulips in bloom.