Dried distillers grains with solubles do not always cause late blowing in baby Swiss cheese

Abstract

Late blowing in Swiss cheese, a result of unwanted gas production, is unacceptable to consumers and causes economic loss to manufacturers. Cheese processors have raised concerns that feeding dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) to cows leads to this defect, in part because of clostridial spores. We hypothesized that spores in DDGS would affect the quality of milk and baby Swiss cheese by promoting late-blowing defects. Thirty healthy multiparous and mid-lactation Holstein cows were fed total mixed ration containing DDGS (0, 10, and 20%; 10 cows per treatment group) by dietary dry matter in a 3×3 Latin square design. One complete milking from all cows within a treatment was collected and pooled for baby Swiss cheese, twice within each month of the 3-mo study. Additionally, individual milk samples from the 3 milkings of one day were collected weekly for proximate analysis. Incubation in reinforced clostridial medium-lactate medium tubes inoculated with milk, cheese, total mixed ration, or manure showed gas formation. Conversely, the DDGS used in our study did not contain gas-producing, spore-forming bacteria. Feeding 20% DDGS decreased milk fat percent and increased the solids nonfat, protein, and lactose percent of milk. After 60 d of ripening, baby Swiss cheese had typical propionic acid Swiss cheese aroma. Regardless of dietary treatment, pinholes, slits, splits, cracks, or a combination of these, were seen throughout most cheeses. Feeding of DDGS increased the amount of long-chain unsaturated fatty acids and decreased short-chain and most medium-chain fatty acids in the baby Swiss cheese. Although feeding cows diets with DDGS modified milk composition, and subsequently cheese composition, DDGS was not a source for gas-producing, spore-forming bacteria or for quality defects in Swiss cheese. Rather, the gas-producing, spore-forming bacteria likely originated from the environment or the cows themselves.

Feeding reduced-fat dried distillers grains with solubles to lactating Holstein dairy cows does not alter milk composition or cause late blowing in cheese

“…propensity for defects, and we did not see any splits. The findings are consistent with our previous research (Manimanna Sankarlal et al, 2015), where feeding full-fat DDGS did not affect the quality of baby Swiss cheese produced compared with feeding a conventional dairy ration without DDGS to lactating Holstein dairy cows.…”

“…Even though the Houck article was not published in a peer-reviewed journal, the article is read by farmers and processors, so the implications of the article are relevant. In our previous work, it was shown that DDGS did not contain spores, yet TMR, manure, milk, and cheese did contain gas-producing spores (Manimanna Sankarlal et al, 2015). The present work was undertaken in an environment known to harbor gas-forming spores to investigate whether cheese made from milk of cows fed RF-DDGS was more prone to defects than cheese made from milk of cows fed a TMR.…”

“…Our research group investigated the effects on the quality of baby Swiss cheese when feeding full-fat DDGS (~13% fat) to dairy cows and observed no treatment effects in the quality of baby Swiss cheese when cows were fed up to 20% full-fat DDGS. Gas-forming spores were found in all TMR and all cheese samples regardless of treatment; however, spores were not found in any of the DDGS samples (Manimanna Sankarlal et al, 2015). Because decreasing the concentration of fat in DDGS can alleviate the risk of milk fat depression and because our previous research indicates that inclusion of DDGS in the diets of dairy cows does not cause late-blowing defects, we hypothesized that feeding RF-DDGS to lactating Holstein dairy cows supports milk production and composition with no further implications on quality of baby Swiss cheese.…”

“…None of the cheeses were split. Late-fermentation defects, particularly splits and blown defects, have a negative effect on processors (i.e., slicing ability is affected negatively) and consumers (who expect round, glossy eyes); therefore, bad eyes are an economic issue (White et al, 2003;Manimanna Sankarlal et al, 2015). To limit late-fermentation defects in Swiss-type cheese, Fröhlich-Wyder et al (2002) recommended propionibacteria strains of low aspartase activity, addition of L. casei strains, and omission of L. helveticus.…”

“…Research has shown positive results of lactation performance when RF-DDGS (~6% fat) are included in the rations of lactating dairy cows (Mjoun et al, 2010;Castillo-Lopez et al, 2014;Ramirez-Ramirez et al, 2016). However, no publications describe animal performance and milk processing properties when cows consume RF-DDGS, and reports are mixed about the effect of feeding DG on cheese quality (Houck et al, 2007;Manimanna Sankarlal et al, 2015). Dairy scientists have implicated the inclusion of DDGS in the rations of lactating dairy cows as a cause of late blowing defects, primarily through introduction of spores (Houck et al, 2007).…”