World Dairy Innovation Awards 2022
World Dairy Innovation awards 2022 Myconeos is a Finalist for Best manufacturing/technology innovation with Mycoforti® Penicillium roqueforti Cheese Cultures.
June 2022
Myconeos was a finalist at the World Dairy Innovation Award for best new technology innovation with its new Mycoforti® Cheese Cultures at Laval, France in June 2022. These have just been launched in the UK and ROI and will be available in Europe soon.
Genetic diversity is eroding with “Roughly 80 per cent of culture houses’ products are quite similar,” David Gibbons, The Oxford Companion to Cheese; regaining diversity is critical to maintaining the effectiveness and performance of Penicillium roqueforti for cheese makers.
Myconeos, a fungal biotechnology company founded on revolutionary technology developed at the University of Nottingham, naturally breed, new fungal strains of Penicillium roqueforti for use in blue mould ripened cheese. This has meant the first new introduction of fungal strains in forty years, under the Mycoforti® brand.
The technology supports dairies in producing strains that reduce undesirable bitter notes and have umami flavour profiles enabling salt reduction in cheese.
What is the product range?
Penicillium roqueforti are characterised by different properties, such as colour, proteolytic (degradation of proteins) and lipolytic (degradation of the fat) capacity. These determine the characteristics of the cheese at the end of the ageing process.
Our portfolio of four strains branded under the Mycoforti® trademark have been extensively tested by our cheese development partners. Cheese made with the strains has undergone taste test trials by public consumers, expert blue cheese tasters, cheese manufacturers and a leading UK supermarket buyer and their team.
We have selected four strains to launch with self-explanatory taste profiles:
Mild, which produces cheese with a creamy, mild, classic blue cheese flavour but without any unpleasant volatiles or bitter taste.
Classic, which matches the current leading mould; we believe with a richer taste and lacking any unpleasant volatiles or bitterness.
Intense, which produces cheese with a novel, strong but sensational blue cheese flavour.
Artisan, which has a unique taste profile, with a classic blue cheese flavour mixed in with biscuit and tangy flavours, again without unpleasant volatiles or bitter taste.
When a cheese produced with this strain was tasted by an expert blue cheese taster, he described it as the “best blue cheese” he had tasted in over 30 years. Our single strain easy to use cheese cultures are for direct inoculation and provide product quality and consistency
Development of strains:
extending product shelf life through reduced water activity based on the lipolytic and proteolytic balance;
for new colours is possible with variants such as, highland green, white and pale blue; and
tuned to alternative milk profiles such as, sheep or goats are in progress.