A research team at the DTU National Food Institute conducted a literature review of cheese fermentation and ripening and identified five underused, evidence-based measures to improve efficiency and sustainability in cheese production.
A large share of milk ends up as cheese, which comes in a vast range of varieties, is satiating, and keeps well. Combined with our culinary heritage, this makes cheese a very popular dairy product, yet it is also resource-intensive to produce. One of the points raised by the researchers is that whey can be exploited far better than is currently the case in many dairies around the world.
“When dairies produce one kilogram of cheese, they simultaneously produce up to nine kilograms of whey. Whey contains most of the milk sugar as well as important minerals and vitamins, yet today it is often sold cheaply to large whey refineries, and on a global scale, a significant share is discarded as waste. That is both a loss of a valuable raw material and associated with handling costs for dairies,” says Associate Professor Christian Solem of the DTU National Food Institute.
Within cheese fermentation, there is another challenge that could potentially be solved quite simply—namely, bacteriophages. Bacteriophages are viruses that can kill the lactic acid bacteria so crucial to cheese production. A phage attack can delay or ruin an entire production run. Dairies, therefore, typically rely on cumbersome procedures in which they rotate between different cultures.
“Our review shows that, by encapsulating the lactic acid bacteria in the curd before they are added to the cheese vat, the dairies can protect them against bacteriophages,” says Postdoc Shuangqing Zhao of the DTU National Food Institute.
Five under-utilised measures
In the study, the researchers point to five measures that could potentially be implemented with limited process changes in many dairies:
A shortcut to cheaper starter cultures
Most dairies today buy ready-to-use starter cultures, so-called DVS cultures, because they are easy to handle and deliver stable results, but they are also expensive. An alternative is to propagate one’s own cultures on site and use them directly in production. The benefit is that only a small portion of the original culture is needed as a “starter pack,” after which the rest can be propagated in-house. In this way, the cost of cultures can be up to a hundred times lower, the researchers note. The trade-off is the need for tighter control of both process and hygiene, because the dairies themselves must keep the cultures stable and consistent. For larger dairies—and for smaller ones that can share facilities—this may be an economically attractive solution.
Implementation depends on cheese type and existing equipment, and the researchers note that some measures will require pilot testing and regulatory clarification.
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The scientific article, Cheese production revisited – Novel and overlooked strategies for improving efficiency and sustainability of cheese manufacturing , is published in Food Science & Technology.
Trends in Food Science & Technology
Cheese production revisited – Novel and overlooked strategies for improving efficiency and sustainability of cheese manufacturing
21-Aug-2025
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