Objectives

As an artisanal apprenticeship “cheesemaker” no longer exists + the knowledge + skills are only available to a limited extent, the association “VHM” offers practical trainings + further education . Artisanal milk processing is highly complex. Cheese defects, i.e. undesirable sensory properties, still pose enormous challenges for producers. They may lead to batch faults and consequently to higher economic losses which amount to 5-30% of the annual turnover. The aim is to develop a user-friendly database of cheese defects as an analysis tool to improve the artisanal milk processing for more than 100 Hessian farmhouse dairies by documenting potential causes + strategies to prevent failures.