Chemometrics approach to substrate development, case: semisyntetic cheese

In several cases a well defined, robust and easy reproducible substrate that meets specific requirements is needed. This is the case in studies of fungal growth and metabolism on specific products as affected by environmental conditions or processing factors, or isolation of product specific fungi from food production facilities.The Chemometrics approach to substrate development is illustrated by the development of a semisyntetic cheese substrate. Growth, colour formation and mycotoxin production of 6 cheese related fungi were studied on 9 types of natural cheeses and 24 synthetic cheese substrates and compared using principal component analysis (PCA). The synthetic cheese substrates contained various amounts of Ca, K, Mg, Na, P, Fe, Cu, Zn, lactate, lactose and casein. In this manner a robust, well-defined and easy prepared laboratory cheese substrate was developed for Penicillium commune, the most frequently occurring contaminant on semi-hard cheese. Growth experiments on the substrate were repeatable and reproducible. The substrate was also suitable for the starter P. camemberti. Mineral elements in cheese were shown to have strong effect on growth, mycotoxin production and colour formation of fungi. For P. roqueforti, P. discolor, P. verrucosum and Aspergillus versicolor the substrate was less suitable as a model cheese substrate, which indicates great variation in nutritional demands of the fungi. Substrates suitable for studies of specific cheese types was found for P. roqueforti and P. discolor but none for P. verrucosum and A. versicolor. This indicates that additional factors must be included in the experimental design to meet the requirements of these fungi. The semisynthetic cheese substrate is now used routinely in our laboratory.