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Cheddar Cheese Starters: Current Knowledge and Practices of Phage Characteristics and Strain Selection

New Zealand Dairy Research Institute, Palmerston North, New Zealand

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Few people will argue with the statement that the primary function of a starter is to produce lactic acid in the cheese vats. In any specific cheese plant, starter activity may be retarded by a number of factors. Inhibitory substances in the milk, either as a result of mastitis treatment or of the poor bacteriological quality of the raw milk, may stop acid production altogether. To a lesser extent, variation in the composition of the milk throughout the year and over-ripening of the starter in the bulk starter tanks also can reduce starter activity. However, the most important inhibitory factor by far is bacteriophage. A few years ago one of our older cheesemakers commented that he had been working in 1930 at the cheese plant where Whitehead first started his investigations on single strains— "I was there", he said, "when Hugh Whitehead investigated this phage business.