The question is relevant because of the successive crises, viz., mad cow, dioxins, and recently GMO, which have led to blaming the quality and even the origins of livestock feed. A year ago, the Colzauprot project funded by the Comité Interprofessionnel du Gruyère de Comté (CIGC, interprofessional committee of Comté gruyere cheese), Actilait, Oséo and the Franche-Comté Region, with the participation of INRA-URTAL and ISBA (UMT member of Poligny) was launched to answer the question. The project, which has been certified by the Vitagora competitive cluster, is studying the impact of replacing the soybean cake (fed to the dairy herds of the Comté cheese network) with a rapeseed cake with 2 to 9% of fat, on the organoleptic and nutritional qualities of cheese.
As of last January, the cows in a herd producing the milk used to make Comté cheese began to eat a protein supplement whose composition was altered every four weeks. The livestock went from a 100% soybean supplement to a ration with 50% and then 100% rapeseed, but with 9% fat. During the entire operation which ended in early April, the milk was collected to make Comté cheese. Analyses were conducted at each stage of milk collection and cheese making until ripening; the tank milk and the serums generated by the cheese making facility were also analyzed.
Today, cheese ripening is ongoing. In September and until next November the sensory analysis work per se will be conducted. "Our goal is to draw up very fine sensory profiles to observe whether replacing the soybean with rapeseed has an impact on the organoleptic and nutritional qualities of the cheese we make," explained Actilait Regional Delegate Eric Notz, who is also deputy organizer of the Poligny UMT in Franche-Comté. Results are expected in June 2009.
