A Comparative Study of Traditional and Industrial Saint-Nectaire Cheese-Making Processes by Mid Infrared Spectroscopy and Chemometrics

The objectives of the present project were to evaluate the physicochemical characteristics of eighteen French Saint-Nectaire cheeses (ripened for 30 days) elaborated via traditional and industrial cheese-making process and to verify the ability of MIR spectroscopy (3000-900 cm -1 ) to monitor the differences between the two cheese-making processes (traditional, industrial). The AONVA results indicate that no significant differences occurred in the chemical parameters between the two cheese- making technologies; however, these differences were small in magnitude but gave rise to some extent of texture attributes. Texture attributes of industrial Saint-Nectaire cheeses showed slightly greater than the other ones and the differences were significant. No differences were observed among the different samples for cheese color (L* and b*). Principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to MIR spectral data. It was possible to classify different Saint-Nectaire cheese samples using MIR technology based on their spectral data. Using the spectral range of 3000-900 cm -1 , cheese samples from different manufacturers was grouped in well-separated by the PCA. We concluded that the combination of MIR spectroscopic technique with multivariate analysis could be successfully used, a rapid and simple method to discriminate cheese samples in terms of cheese-making processes.