DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES IN THE PROCESSING OF ORGANICALLY AND NON-ORGANICALLY PRODUCED (SEMI)-HARD CHEESE�- ANALYSIS BASED ON EXPERT INTERVIEWS WITH ARTISANAL CHEESE DAIRY STAFF IN THE MÜNSTERLAND REGION IN GERMANY

Summary

The study compares the production of organic and non-organic artisanal (semi-)hard cheese and examines the producers’ understanding of the term “gentle processing”. Guided interviews were conducted with four experts from two organic and two non-organic artisanal on-farm-dairies in the Münsterland region. The interviews were evaluated on the basis of the structured content analysis according to Mayring. Both expert groups described similar steps in their cheese production. As differences in cheese processing, the experts stated the use of additives, the storage time of the milk and the cheese care. Moreover, differences in the technological pre-treatment of the milk could be identified. This study is the first to investigate differences and similarities in the processing of (semi-)hard cheese in organic and non-organic dairies.
Introduction: The demand for organically produced dairy products in Germany is growing and with it the production of processed organic dairy products, such as cheese [1]. The EU-Regulation for organic food processing gives only little detailed information on the allowed processing steps, with a focus on restricting food additives [2]. But the question is if there are more differences between the production of organic and non-organic dairy products and how these relate to gentle processing. The production of cheese can be done in an industrial setting, where technological pre-treatment processes like microfiltration or standardisation take place [3]. But there are also artisanal cheese dairies, which were in focus of this study.