Research unit in dairy technology and analysis

The control of the final characteristics of cheeses, especially the sensory characteristics, is a major concern for professionals and consumers.

A specific issue for some cheese productions is to maintain the typicality of the product and in particular to express the diversity of their production conditions in the diversity of their final characteristics. However, the rapid evolution of technology and raw materials significantly modifies the final characteristics of cheeses. Professionals are therefore looking for levers that allow them to respond to these changes while maintaining control over the characteristics of the ripened cheeses. For other cheese productions, the challenge is to diversify the final characteristics of cheeses produced under standardized conditions. The understanding of the development of the final characteristics of cheeses is then a prerequisite to the implementation of new processes.

In this context, the activities of the unit are aimed at controlling the quality of cheeses. The research conducted in the unit focuses on the first stages of cheese processing (before ripening) by studying the interactions between microorganisms, raw material (milk) and technological approaches and their impact on the final characteristics of cheeses, particularly their sensory characteristics.

In order to carry out this research, URTAL’s activities have been organized into a single research theme “Determinants of the characteristics of ripened cheeses”, divided into two complementary research areas: “Impacts of early technological processes on the characteristics of ripened cheeses” and ” Aroma development in cheeses”, and a cross-cutting area: expertise and analysis activities (cheese technology, microbiology, molecular biology, immunochemistry, biochemistry, etc.) in support of the research projects.