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Optimization of cheese quality in organic artisanal goat milk processing considering raw milk variations - MRI
Project
Project code: 2821OE031
Contract period: 01.01.2023
- 31.12.2025
Budget: 130,982 Euro
Purpose of research: Applied research
Keywords: small ruminants, food quality, milk, product quality, process quality, sensor technology, goats, organic farming
The majority of organic goat milk farms processes milk in farmhouse dairies in Germany, is aiming to produce an authentic cheese quality with a high hedonic quality. According to the current evaluations of KTBL (2021), the economic potential of farmhouse milk processing is greater than for those supplying goat milk to the very limited number of organic dairies in Germany. Thus, organic artisanal goat milk processing can contribute to the livelihood of predominantly smaller farms and diverse agriculture in rural areas. However, small-scale dairies can only realize the potential of on-farm processing if they successfully achieve consistently high cheese quality and, thus, meet consumer expectations. However, experience from artisanal cheese making shows that sudden severe and sometimes unpredictable variations of the goat milk quality occur even in dairies with many years of experience, resulting in cheese failures, i.e., undesirable sensory deviations from their quality standard. These high economic losses due to variations in quality or unsaleable productions of 5 up to 30% of the annual turnover of a dairy, especially for newcomers, considerably threatens the existence of dairies processing goat milk. The aim of the project is to examine the milk quality, the cheese-making characteristics of organic goat milk and the sensory quality of organic goat cheese and to develop and test technological measures (process parameters) with which artisanal cheese making can adapt to variations in the quality of the milk. The project partner VHM is responsible for knowledge transfer measures aiming to provide the research results in suitable way for the target group and making them available and disseminating them in various forms in German-speaking countries.
Section overview
Subjects
- Special animal species
- Food Processing
- Nutritional behaviour
Framework programme
Federal Organic Farming Scheme and other forms of sustainable agriculture (BÖLN)
Funding programme
Excutive institution
Max Rubner-Institut - Federal Research Institute of Nutrition and Food (MRI)
