THE RIPENING OF CHEESE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 146, 21 June 1901, Page 3

THE RIPENING OF CHEESE.

The following communication on this subject appears in a late issu^ of "The Dairy" :— •

In the recently published Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, Fart IV., p. 657. there is an article on this subject by Professor J. Reynolds Green, which contains the following statements:—"in IS7B attempts were made by Dnclnux to obtain pure cultures of the different bacteria found in cheese. He worked on Cantal cheese, from which he extracted ten different species. . . . Duclaux grouped these forms together in the mentis Tyrothrix." Professor Green then continues: "It seems probable, therefore, that so far as bacteria are concerned, it is these forms, and not the true lactic bacteria, which set up the changes" —i.e., of ripening-. The Professor then states that both Yon IFreudenreieh, as regards Emmenthaler cheese, better known in England as Gruyere, and myself as regards Cheddar cheese, are opposed to

■this view

Seeing that there is such diametric opposition between the two beliefs, one would have expected that Professor Green should have given some! facts to justify him in supporting the view of Duclaux. But he has not. And. why? Because such facts do notj exist. Hence it is evident that he has himself never whidied the subject, but merely the work of others. No one will doubt the work of such an admirable observer as Duclaux, nor that such Tyrothrix bacteria do exist in Cantal cheese, and may perform *he function of ripening in that cheese. But we do not make Cantal cheese in England, and what English cheese-makers ask of science is— ■what produces the ripening of Cheddar and other English cheese? Not the Tyrothrix varieties of bacteria. Of that fact every observer is convinced, whether he has studied Cheddar cheese made in England, Scotland, the United States, or Canada. The organisms of the genus "Tyrothrix" are never present in good Cheddar cheese; they may be present at times in inferior and contaminated cheese. . I still maintain that the ripening of Cheddar cheese, so far as our knowledge enables us to judge at present, 5s due to the lactic acid producing bacteria. There has recently been published in the "Centralblatt fur Bakteriologie, Zweite. Abtheilung,^ Vol VI., p. 785-791, an article wmcn gives quite the strongest evidence in support of my contention that has yet been supplied by any other observer. Those who are familiar with recent discussions on the ripening of Cheddar cheese will be aware that the most formidable theory yet put forward in opposition to my own is that of Messrs Babcock and Eussell, of Wisconsin. One would, . therefore, (scarcely have expected that the strongest possible evidence 'in support of my views should have come from one of their pupils, now at the University of New Mexico. Yet such is the fact. Mr John Weinziel reports that he has made a bacteriological examination of sixty-two cheeses, of which fifty were Cheddar. Having given the details of his investigations, he says: "B, or Bacillus laetis acidi, is the prevailing organism it being present in all the cheese analysed." "Standing next in importance is 82, or Bacillus acidi la> tici (Hueppe)." "Together B and B2 include 96.1 per cent, of the bacteria •found in cheese, leaving only 3.9 per cent for all the remaining species. "Only one bacterium was found to correspond to Duclaux's Tyrothrix

forms." , . Had Trofe*sor Green known of these results before his paper was published,, he might probably have keen more guarded in his statements; indeed, had ho taken the trouble to examine for himself half a dozen samples of good Cheddar cheese, he would have been convinced of his error. Those who write for the benefit of farmers °U^V° + - L JiT .daily careful. It is at all times difficult to teach them, and, ***** the Board of Agriculture and the Bath and West of England Society have spent some thousands of pounds m striving to improve the Cheddar cheese industry by aindertaking the investigations, which it was my privilege to carry out, it was not a courteous act on the part of a writer in the Eoyal Agricultural Society s Journal to place himself in direct opfiosition to those results without having some exceptionally strong evidence in snpport of his position. . . FREDE. J. LLOYD. . Laboratory, Muscovy House, Trinity Square, London, E.C.