Feta production made easy with Chr Hansen

Intended for production of traditional, white-brined cheese such as feta and halloumi, the culture blends have been developed in cooperation with Greek manufacturers of traditional sheep and goat milk feta cheese.

The freeze-dried feta cultures are delivered in Chr Hansen’s Direct Vat Set (DVS) packaging format in a package size that fits an average vat size of 1,000 litres – the most common vat size in Greek feta production.

The DVS dairy cultures are highly concentrated and standardised freeze-dried cultures used for direct inoculation of the cheese milk.

The cultures need no activation or other treatment prior to use and offer a number of advantages in terms of flexibility of use, consistent performance, possibility of using customised culture blends, and no investment in bulk starter equipment.

A growing cheese segment

According to GNPD Mintel data, the number of new feta cheese products has climbed steadily throughout the past decade, and in 2008 there was a virtual boom in new feta cheese products. South Africa, the US and Greece account for the vast majority.

7% of the 14 million tonnes of global cheese production falls into the feta category. Feta is a major cheese type in the Asia-Pacific-Middle East-Africa region, accounting for one third of total cheese production in this region.

“Compared to traditional bulk starter cultures, which are usually based on pure thermophilic strains, the new blends from Chr Hansen give the cheese a better texture thanks to the mesophilic strains,” said Christos Tsitsos, business dairy manager, Chr Hansen Greece.

“Traditional, white-brined cheeses are matured 1-3 weeks, and during storage there’s a risk of having yeast growth on the cheese. When using culture blends based on mesophilic and thermophilic strains, the risk of yeast attack is eliminated due to a better controlled acidification of the cheese under production.”