New research allows cheese quality to be checked much earlier and more precisely in the process, giving manufacturers a better chance to react to issues with the ripening process.

It’s part of why cheese is so complex and expensive to make — a factory could invest lots of time and money into what they think will be a top-graded batch, only to discover it’s a flop when it’s too late to fix.

But new research from RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia allows quality to be checked much earlier and more precisely in the process, giving manufacturers a better chance to react to issues with the ripening process.

Dr Roya Afshari said the team devised a method to expose cheese’s biomarkers — or fingerprints — to show unique combinations of things like chemicals and milk-derived components that make up the perfect block.

«Once we know the chemical profile of a successful cheese, we can compare it to new batches as soon as 30 days into the ageing process,» she said.

«It’s like a pregnancy screening test for cheese — we analyse the biological data early in the development to see if there are any red flags.

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Materials provided by RMIT University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.