Functional changes in Bleu d’Auvergne cheese during ripening

Exploring alternative salting methods to reduce sodium content in blue-veined cheeses

“…The pH obtained for all the cheeses in this study was comparable to the pH found in Bleu d'Auvergne (Bord et al, 2016;Duval et al, 2016;Ferroukhi et al, 2022). pH values did not greatly change in the coarse salted cheeses.…”

“…In all cheeses analysed, Streptococcus, Lactococcus and Leuconostoc mesenteroides species were dominant with a raw abundance sum of 123966, 127126 and 27923 reads, respectively. In a previous study, a dominance of these starter culture species was observed in Bleu d'Auvergne cheese (Ferroukhi et al, 2022) and other blue-cheeses (Caron et al, 2021;Flórez & Mayo, 2006). This bacterial dominance could explain why the bacterial abundance of non-starter LAB strains was extremely low, as these bacteria occur at higher levels only in later stages of ripening (Blaya et al, 2018).…”

“…Cheeses salted with fine salt had a relatively higher amount of calcium than cheeses salted with coarse salt. Blueveined cheeses are a category with a complex matrix resulting in the variability of composition parameters such as salt (Ferroukhi et al, 2022;Gkatzionis et al, 2014).…”

“…Blue-veined cheeses appear as the saltiest variety of cheeses with salt content up to 4% (ANSES, 2002). Despite its nutritional value (Ferroukhi et al, 2022), one serving of blue cheese may contribute up to 40% of the recommended dietary Na intake (Guinee & O'Kennedy, 2007). Thus, reducing NaCl content of blue cheese is necessary to help improve health outcomes.…”

How can the NaCl content of ripened Fourme d'Ambert cheese be reduced using innovative dry surface salting processes?

“…However, many cheeses also have a high sodium content, in particular, blue-veined cheeses that can contain up to 4% salt (ANSES 2002). A recent study showed that a 40 g portion of blue-veined cheese contains up to 23% of the recommended daily intake level of salt (Ferroukhi et al 2022). Excessive salt intake has been strongly associated with a number of health problems (Doyle and Glass 2010).…”