SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS OF A SIMPLIFIED CHEESE RIPENING MASS LOSS MODEL

This paper is focused on the mass loss rate during the ripening of surface-mould cheese. From mechanistic laws, the idea is to carry out simplifications without loss of accuracy and to perform sensitivity analysis for model inputs. The high significance of accurate relative humidity and gas composition measurements and the low influence of the atmospheric temperature are pointed out. The model reliability according to three key parameters (emissivity, surface water activity and average heat transfer coefficient) is also described.