I bought shrinkwrapped cheddar the other day. The expiration date is out in October. Once the wrap is broken, the cheese will begin to mold in a couple of weeks. Mold spoors are everywhere. What process is used to eliminate spoors in shrinkwrapped cheese?
Awesome spelling glitch there dude. :).
“spoor” is poop. “Spores” are the dormant state of mold and certain types of microbe.
After that I can’t help you. Though I hope hey take steps to keep spoor out of cheese. New and improved with less dog poop than ever!!!
Aren’t most molds aerobic? The spores might be there already, and just can’t grow without oxygen.
Apparently so. Didn’t know that. I see there are shrink wrap machines which can purge oxygen with an inert gas like nitrogen. I do know that nitrogen is used in packaging things like potato chips to keep the oils from oxidizing.
Yes (or at least, they require oxygen to bloom. Not sure if the earlier growth stages can be anaerobic) - and in cheesemaking, probably the most famous and obvious example of this is Penicillium roqueforti - blue cheese mould. The cheese is inoculated with the mould culture at a very early stage - but nothing happens until the matured cheese is pierced to let in air (this is also why the blue veining in cheese follows straight tracks - they are the little voids left by the piercing skewer)
For vacuum-packed cheeses, there is often a washing process (in brine or vinegar) immediately before wrapping, which inhibits surface infection by moulds or unfriendly bacteria - in general, only the surface is a problem - the inside of the cheese is dominated by the culture that was deliberately introduced by the blessed cheesemaker.