Optimization of favour formation in hard cheeses

Hard cheeses are normally made using thermophilic starters because of the high cooking temperatures (>39°C) involved. Mesophilic starters cannot presently be used because the high temperature would affect the subsequent acidification and flavor formation. Thermophilic starters tolerate the high temperature, but are
unable to produce some of the desirable flavor compounds produced by their mesophilic counterparts. In this project we wish to study whether this problem can be solved by changing process parameters and/or starter so that harder cheeses can be made using mesophilic starters.