First Prize Pozo del Molle 2007 to “Camembert Cheese”

The First Prize Pozo del Molle 2007 was given to our “Camembert Cheese”.

As specified in the competition rules cheeses were divided into categories and the evaluation was done in two stages. Throughout the contest, cheeses were presented with no identification of the factory. They were coded with the pertaining category number and a number of three digits chosen at random in the first stage, and with another number of four digits chosen at random in the second stage.

In every cheese competition it is necessary to carry out a sensory analysis for their qualification which, due to the great number of samples to evaluate, the low number of jurymen, no standardized language, and the short time available to make the samples analyses, presents particular characteristics.

The sensory analysis laboratory of INTI-Lácteos (INTI-Dairies) developed a methodology for the sensory analysis of cheeses in competition, which includes particular jury forms to analyze the different types of competitor cheeses.

The jury of a cheese involves the evaluation of “Appearance”, “Texture” and “Flavor”. For operative reasons, it was divided into two stages (separated in time and space); the first stage took into account tarts cut in halves, visually evaluating “External Appearance” (shape and rind) and “Internal Appearance”(color, eyes, openings, etc.). The second stage, tasting, was done considering two samples cut in 7x10x70 mm parallelepipeds with no rind presented in appropriate closed containers. At this stage, “Flavor” (smell, scents, tastes, etc.) and “Texture” (elasticity, firmness, humidity, etc.) were evaluated.

The descriptors used for evaluating Appearance, Flavor and Texture attributes were the ones internationally used by the International Dairy Federation ( Rule FIL-IDF 99C:1997) and European Union ( FLAIR 1994 and FLORA 1996 Projects.)

A 5-point scale was used for the individual punctuation of each descriptor. Its purpose is to set up the degree of concordance with the sensory requisite predetermined for each cheese variety. Thus, a descriptor is qualified with 5 points if it has “Concordance with the predetermined sensory requisite”, 4 points if it has a“Minimum deviation from the predetermined sensory requisite”, 3 points if it has a ”Perceivable deviation from the predetermined sensory requisite”, 2 points if it has a “Considerable deviation from the predetermined sensory requisite”, and 1 point if it has a “Very considerable deviation from the predetermined sensory requisite”. The score of each cheese is calculated as the summing up of the scores given for each descriptor.

Each cheese was evaluated by 6 expert jurymen, who were trained in the above mentioned methodology in a criteria leveling course in charge of INTI-Lácteos staff.

The cheese final score was determined as the average of the individual scores given by each juryman participating in the category.

Source: quesosargentinos.gov.ar