NSLAB (none starter lactic acid bacteria) are used to help ripen cheese. Danisco (Wisby) have now for several years had Lc 705 and Lb. rhamnosus as an adjunct culture. These are added together with regular starter cultures to control spores and other contaminants.

Normally small cheese plants do not have big swings in the number of NSLAB, but in large cheese plants there can be large variations, since milk not always comes from the same producers.

Normally large plants have excellent control with moisture content, min. pH etc., but not the best control when it comes to NSLAB.


More about ripening in Swiss Cheese.

With more proteolytic culture you could instead of 6 months maybe come down to 4-5 months flavour-vice by using Lb. helv. 7 PELLET DIP, which generally results in high proteolysis (both proteinase activity as well as peptidase activity). Lb.helv.174 PELLET DIP has only very high peptidase activity (using the two cultures in a recommended ratio will in practice means a better texture and less bitter cheese). Also called ?debittering? cultures.
What could also help in Swiss is to use rennet with high pepsin content (in Norway and Sweden they use bovine rennet with 25-50 % chymosin and 50-75% bovine pepsin) - this gives a shorter less elastic curd though. The negative effect is that splits are more likely to occur.
We recommend using Bio-Profit in Swiss. http://www.danlac.com/store/index.asp?category=1&product_id=349

(See below *).

How to enhance and even speed up ripening.

The best or fastest Lb.combination for flavour development is a blend of
Lb.h.7 and Lb.h.174, e.g. each 500 g per 10.000-kg milk.

The best mesophilic culture normally is Probat 505 http://www.danlac.com/store/index.asp?category=1&product_id=94

(used in Norway for Jarlsberg today) but it can in some cases be too fast gas producing giving too many eyes.

Then Probat M3 (or M9) can be recommended.

*)
In some cases we will recommend Bio-Profit instead of using Propioni as a good solution and also cost competitive. The propioni bacteria in Bio-Profit gives a good cheese and the culture is relatively cheap compared to the count it has, still we naturally have to recommend 500 gr. Pellet DIP or 50 U Visbyvac DIP per 5000 kg milk.

Through the Bio-Profit you also get some Lb.rhamnosus Lc 705 that also gives some proteolysis. Even better for that is Lb.rhamnosus162 really, but then you would have to use Propioni JS from Bio-Profit separately, e.g. of each 250g Pellet DIP per 5000 kg milk.

In Gouda types a blend of 7 and 174 has been found to give even better results than only 7. Wisby have several only using 7, finding the effect being very significantly but the extra addition of 174 less so!

Also working very well is Lb.rhamnosus, where we mostly find best flavour development with 162, but also some people find Lc 705 good. One producer in NZ did some tests and found that the addition of 162 gave a cheese having a good Cheddar flavor after 4 months equal to their normal 6-month-old cheese.
Therefore our recommendation would be to use Lb.helv. 7 together with Lb.r.162, but naturally every cheese maker has find out himself, what fits his needs best!

In UK Danisco sell blends, where also Probat M4 http://www.danlac.com/store/index.asp?category=1&product_id=111

or Lc.diacetylactis A is added because more flavour is demanded. They give aromatic compounds and at the same time contain strains that give high peptidase activity in cheese. It really gives significant effect, but also some openings in the cheese.
In NZ we know that they use a little addition of Leuconostoc to optimize flavour in Cheddar, especially in the beginning of the cow?s lactation period. They find that if they have problems with stringent and off flavour, Leuconostoc helps to get rid off it, but it also makes the young cheese taste a little better (maybe because of less acetaldehyde only?) they think.

If farmhouse/raw milk flavour is wanted, the best cultures to add are Hafnia alvei (HE14), Enterococcus faecium (M74). Staph.xylosus (M2) and Brevibacteria casei (Bc), where allowed, e.g. used quite a lot in France now.

So there are several possibilities to obtain extra or different flavour available but how much of it can be allowed in North America is the question that has to be asked?

If you find some of this interesting and like to pursue it in your plant, we will be happy to work with you or your R & D department.