Conditions allowing the formation of biogenic amines in cheese

English. A study was undertaken to reveal the conditions that allow the formation of biogenic amines in cheese.The starters most commonly used in the Dutch cheese industry do not have decarboxylative properties. Only if the milk or curd is contaminated with non-starter bacteria, amine formation may be observed. As most of the cheese produced in the Netherlands is made from pasteurized milk, and because recontamination only occurs at very low levels, the concentration of biogenic amines in cheese produced in this country is generally very low.Actively decarboxylating bacteria were found among the mesophilic lactobacilli and among the Enterobacteriaceae . Enterococci and pediococci are probably not important for amine build-up in Dutch-type cheese.A study of the kinetics of histamine formation in a Gouda cheese, deliberately infected with a histidine decarboxylating Lactobacillus buchneri strain (St2A, 10 8cfu/g), revealed that the precursor concentration puts a limit to the histamine content. This explains why toxicologically hazardous quantities can only be found in heavily infected cheese with excessive proteolysis. Histamine degradation does probably not occur in cheese.

Dutch; Flemish. Tijdens de rijping van kaas wordt het eiwit caseine geleidelijk afgebroken, waarbij kleinere peptiden en aminozuren vrij komen. Enkele aminozuren kunnen daarna onder bijzondere omstandigheden omgezet worden in biogene aminen. In het proefschrift wordt aangetoond dat aminevorming in kaas slechts dan optreedt, wanneer de melk of wrongel besmet is geraakt met bacterien die decarboxylases kunnen vormen