Application of descriptive sensory analysis and key chemical indices to assess the impact of elevated ripening temperatures on the acceleration of Cheddar cheese ripening

The impact of elevated ripening temperatures of varying duration to accelerate ripening and flavour development in Cheddar cheese was investigated using multi-variate statistical analysis of biochemical and descriptive sensory data. Descriptive sensory analysis was carried out by 13 trained assessors, using a vocabulary of 21 terms, to quantitatively describe cheese odour and flavour. Twelve attributes significantly discriminated (P<0.05) between the cheeses. Analysis of variance found significant differences between the cheeses (P<0.05) on the first two principle components (accounting for 89% of the explained variation) obtained from principal component analysis (PCA) of the sensory data. Relative positions on the sensory biplot obtained from PCA and related clusters identified by hierarchical cluster analysis indicated acceleration of flavour by production of mature flavour attributes in the experimental cheeses compared to the control cheese by the end of an 8 month ripening period. The descriptive analysis revealed that the use of elevated temperatures during the early stages of ripening result in acceleration of 2 months; however, the use of 20 °C for 1 week or 12 °C for 6 weeks is considered more prudent as it results in a more controlled acceleration strategy.