Scientists ‘break the mold’ by creating new colors of blue cheese

Experts from the University of Nottingham have discovered how to create different colors of blue cheese. After discovering how classic blue-green veins are created, a team of experts from the School of Life Sciences were able to create a variety of different fungal strains that could be used to make cheese with colors ranging from white to yellow-green through red-brown-pink and light and dark blues.

The results of the study are published in the journal npj Food Science.

The Penicillium roqueforti mushroom is used worldwide in the production of blue cheeses such as Stilton, Roquefort and Gorgonzola. Its unique blue-green color and flavor comes from pigmented spores formed by fungal growth. Using a combination of bioinformatics, targeted gene deletions and heterologous gene expression, the research team, led by Dr. Paul Dyer, professor of fungal biology, learned how the blue-green pigment is produced .

Researchers discovered that a biochemical pathway gradually forms blue pigments, starting as a white color, which gradually becomes yellow-green, red-brown-pink, dark brown, light blue, and finally dark blue-green. The team was then able to use classic food safety techniques (non-GMO) to “block” passage in certain places, and thus create strains with new colors that could be used in cheese production.

Dr Dyer said: “We have been interested in cheese fungi for over 10 years and traditionally when you develop mold-ripened cheeses you get blue cheeses such as Stilton, Roquefort and Gorgonzola which use fixed strains of blue-green fungi. in colour. We wanted to see if we could develop new varieties with new flavors and appearances.

“The way we did this was to induce sexual reproduction in the mushroom. So, for the first time, we were able to generate a wide range of varieties with new flavors, including new sweet and intense tastes. We then created new colored versions of some of these new strains.

Once the team produced the cheese with the new color strains, they then used laboratory diagnostic instruments to see what the flavor might be like.

“We found that the taste was very similar to the original blue strains from which they were derived,” Dr Dyer said. “There were subtle differences but not very significant.

“What’s interesting is that once we started making cheese, we then did some taste testing with volunteers from across the university, and we found that when people tried the varieties lighter in color, they thought they had a milder taste, while they thought the darker variety had a more intense flavor.

“Similarly, with the more reddish brown and the light green, people thought they had a fruity, tangy element, whereas according to laboratory instruments their flavor was very similar. This shows that people perceive the taste not only from what they taste but also from what they see.

The team, which included lead postgraduate student Matt Cleere, will now look to work with cheesemakers in Nottinghamshire and Scotland to create the new color variants of blue cheese. A university spin-off company called Myconeos has also already been created to see if the strains can be commercialized.

“Personally, I think it will give people a really satisfying sensory feeling from eating these new cheeses and hopefully it could attract new people to the market,” adds Dr Dyer.