{"id":4997,"date":"2013-03-04T08:00:50","date_gmt":"2013-03-04T13:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?p=4997"},"modified":"2014-04-28T12:09:24","modified_gmt":"2014-04-28T16:09:24","slug":"starter-culture-biodiversity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/starter-culture-biodiversity\/","title":{"rendered":"The Same Game: Losing Biodiversity in Cheese Starter Cultures"},"content":{"rendered":"

Months ago international cheese consultant Ivan Larcher surprised me with this response when I asked what trends he was seeing in the cheese industry: \u201cWhat I\u2019ve been seeing is that everybody tends to use the same starter cultures. In the United States, Quebec, England, Sweden, or even Northern Africa, they\u2019re using the same starters, and the main consequence is that the final products tend to lose their diversity.\u201d Hearing this, I feared that cheese cultures\u2014the microbes added to milk to develop the flavor and texture of cheese curd\u2014were headed in the direction of heirloom seeds; as uncommon varieties die out, biodiversity is lost. The reality, however, is slightly different and, as always, a bit more complicated.<\/p>\n

Generations ago, cheesemakers either made their own starter cultures from whey or from a mother culture they\u2019d cultivated, or they added no culture at all\u2014simply allowing bacteria from the environs to take their course. Both of these practices are difficult to control, and they often led to haphazard results. Today, while some producers continue to make their own cultures, most cheesemakers operating on a large scale, and even many of the artisan and hobbyist ranks, too, are using commercial cultures available in freeze-dried powder form or frozen pellets.<\/p>\n

There have been advantages to this, as Alyce Birchenough, veteran cheesemaker and owner of Sweet Home Farm<\/a> in Alabama, points out, \u201cAdvances in culture technology is one of the reasons that commercial cheesemaking has become more accessible.\u201d Commercially produced cultures offer more control in cheesemaking and reduced risk of both failed and inconsistent batches, as well as contamination.<\/p>\n

Dave Potter, owner of The Dairy Connection<\/a>, a culture distribution company, has worked in the industry for over 30 years. Over that time, he says, there have been massive consolidations among the companies that propagate and bank cheese cultures. During consolidations, bacteria strain banks are reduced when there are genetically identical strains that each company markets under different names. The result is fewer products available on a commercial scale but not necessarily a reduction of biodiversity.<\/p>\n

Over the past few decades, the landscape of cheesemaking has evolved toward the consolidation of small creameries to form large-scale operations focused on more commercial cheeses. This has created a shift in the demand for cultures. The primary needs of a large-scale cheesemaker are to use cultures that reduce the risk of bacteriophage (a virus that kills off starter cultures, rendering them ineffective and ruining entire vats of milk), increase productivity, and ensure a consistent final product. Culture companies have responded to the large-scale cheesemaker priorities by selecting for more vigorous strains that have mechanisms to resist bacteriophage and that build acid, the primary function of starter cultures, more quickly. As a result, widely available starter cultures are generally building acid much faster.<\/p>\n

Faster starters are a cost-effective means for reducing the time it takes to make cheese (think five-hour commodity cheddar now made in three hours). However, this new timetable does not suit every cheesemaking recipe. There are traditional cheeses that require a slow build of acid to achieve specific textures and flavors, Banon<\/a> and traditional English Cheddars, for instance.<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s a smaller cheesemaker to do? Producers can adopt a DIY approach, but many are hesitant to take on the additional risks inherent in growing their own cultures. Cheese consultant Peter Dixon will teach clients how to make their own starters but emphatically states, \u201cOn a small scale you\u2019ve got to be just as careful making your own cultures as you are making your cheese. Just like developing a food safety plan for cheesemaking, you\u2019ve got to make one for culture production.\u201d<\/p>\n

Producers can also contract with a university or a culture house to harvest bacteria naturally occurring within their landscape and propagate them to see if they would make functional cheesemaking cultures. But this process can be quite costly and won\u2019t necessarily yield a viable culture.<\/p>\n

While both Potter and Dixon agree that the variety of cultures readily available to the full range of cheesemakers has decreased, neither was convinced that this change would cause a loss of diversity in cheese types and flavors. There are too many other variables, they say, at play in cheesemaking. As Dixon points out, \u201cThe advantage that the small-batch producer has\u2014particularly farmstead\u2014is the milk itself.\u201d Even if small producers continue to use common cultures, they have a unique milk supply. And then of course, there\u2019s individual technique. How a cheesemaker applies a culture\u2014dosage, temperature, time, and process\u2014all impact the final product. Cultures may indeed be more standardized, but the artisans using them are not. For that we can be very glad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the bio-ingredients of cheesemaking gain uniformity worldwide, what becomes of diversity?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":4998,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"coauthors":[146],"class_list":["post-4997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cheese-iq"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Same Game: Losing Biodiversity in Cheese Starter Cultures - culture: the word on cheese<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As the cheese starter cultures used by cheesemakers gain uniformity worldwide, what becomes of diversity?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/starter-culture-biodiversity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Same Game: Losing Biodiversity in Cheese Starter Cultures\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As the cheese starter cultures used by cheesemakers gain uniformity worldwide, what becomes of diversity?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/starter-culture-biodiversity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"culture: the word on cheese\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/grantgbradley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-03-04T13:00:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-04-28T16:09:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/samegame_featured.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"605\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"270\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sasha Davies\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sasha Davies\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/starter-culture-biodiversity\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/starter-culture-biodiversity\/\",\"name\":\"The Same Game: Losing Biodiversity in Cheese Starter Cultures - culture: the word on cheese\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/starter-culture-biodiversity\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/starter-culture-biodiversity\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/samegame_featured.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-03-04T13:00:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-04-28T16:09:24+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/29ccb80baa3c8b55dd1267fe06357064\"},\"description\":\"As the cheese starter cultures used by cheesemakers gain uniformity worldwide, what becomes of diversity?\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/starter-culture-biodiversity\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/starter-culture-biodiversity\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/starter-culture-biodiversity\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/samegame_featured.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/samegame_featured.jpg\",\"width\":605,\"height\":270},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/starter-culture-biodiversity\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Cheese IQ\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/category\/cheese-iq\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"The Same Game: Losing Biodiversity in Cheese Starter Cultures\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/\",\"name\":\"culture: the word on cheese\",\"description\":\"Culture, America's magazine for cheese lovers, delivers stories about cheeses, cheesemakers, travel to gorgeous cheese regions, and practical tips on buying, presenting, and cooking with cheese.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/29ccb80baa3c8b55dd1267fe06357064\",\"name\":\"Grant Bradley\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/f6d2b1081ae59e4d02381dde1b6f7680\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Grant-Bradley-Headshot-500x500-96x96.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Grant-Bradley-Headshot-500x500-96x96.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Grant Bradley\"},\"description\":\"Grant Bradley is culture's former web editor and never ceases to thank his nameless human ancestor who figured that leaving some milk around for a while and then eating it was probably a great idea. Raised on California\u2019s Central Coast, educated in the Pacific Northwest, and transplanted to New England, Grant likes to write, edit, and code things.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/grantgbradley\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/author\/grant-bradley\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Same Game: Losing Biodiversity in Cheese Starter Cultures - culture: the word on cheese","description":"As the cheese starter cultures used by cheesemakers gain uniformity worldwide, what becomes of diversity?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/starter-culture-biodiversity\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Same Game: Losing Biodiversity in Cheese Starter Cultures","og_description":"As the cheese starter cultures used by cheesemakers gain uniformity worldwide, what becomes of diversity?","og_url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/starter-culture-biodiversity\/","og_site_name":"culture: the word on cheese","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/grantgbradley","article_published_time":"2013-03-04T13:00:50+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-04-28T16:09:24+00:00","og_image":[{"width":605,"height":270,"url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/samegame_featured.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Sasha Davies","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sasha Davies","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/starter-culture-biodiversity\/","url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/starter-culture-biodiversity\/","name":"The Same Game: Losing Biodiversity in Cheese Starter Cultures - culture: the word on cheese","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/starter-culture-biodiversity\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/starter-culture-biodiversity\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/samegame_featured.jpg","datePublished":"2013-03-04T13:00:50+00:00","dateModified":"2014-04-28T16:09:24+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/29ccb80baa3c8b55dd1267fe06357064"},"description":"As the cheese starter cultures used by cheesemakers gain uniformity worldwide, what becomes of diversity?","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/starter-culture-biodiversity\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/starter-culture-biodiversity\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/starter-culture-biodiversity\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/samegame_featured.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/samegame_featured.jpg","width":605,"height":270},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/starter-culture-biodiversity\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Cheese IQ","item":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/category\/cheese-iq\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The Same Game: Losing Biodiversity in Cheese Starter Cultures"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#website","url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/","name":"culture: the word on cheese","description":"Culture, America's magazine for cheese lovers, delivers stories about cheeses, cheesemakers, travel to gorgeous cheese regions, and practical tips on buying, presenting, and cooking with cheese.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/29ccb80baa3c8b55dd1267fe06357064","name":"Grant Bradley","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/f6d2b1081ae59e4d02381dde1b6f7680","url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Grant-Bradley-Headshot-500x500-96x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Grant-Bradley-Headshot-500x500-96x96.jpg","caption":"Grant Bradley"},"description":"Grant Bradley is culture's former web editor and never ceases to thank his nameless human ancestor who figured that leaving some milk around for a while and then eating it was probably a great idea. Raised on California\u2019s Central Coast, educated in the Pacific Northwest, and transplanted to New England, Grant likes to write, edit, and code things.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/grantgbradley"],"url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/author\/grant-bradley\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4997"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}