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Designing the flavour of cheese

The dairy industry strives to produce cheeses with diverse and unique flavours. In doing so, it is important to understand the production steps inside the bacteria responsible for the production of flavour compounds in order to select starter bacteria. Now that the genomes of many fermentative bacteria are known, bioinformatics and metabolic reconstruction give insights into new genes and the metabolic pathways involved. By mapping the genes and modelling the metabolic pathways, the enzyme fluxes leading to the production of specific compounds can be predicted. NIZO food research is at the forefront of these developments within the WCFS project on genomics and bioinformatics, and in the EC-funded EUREKA project Flavour AACEs (Amino Acid Converting Enzymes. Participants in EUREKA project include starter suppliers (CSK food enrichment, Rhodia and Chr. Hansen), cheese producers (Campina, Fromageries Bel) and the French agricultural research organisation (INRA). Selecting lactic acid bacteria strains for genes responsible for e.g. sulphuric flavour formation results in higher production of these compounds. The model is generic and can be applied to any flavour or off-flavour enabling flavour formation to be steered on demand.

key words: starter selection, genomics, bioinformatics, metabolic pathways