Preliminary Study of Ultrasonic Structural Quality Control of Swiss-Type Cheese

Abstract

There is demand for a new nondestructive cheese-structure analysis method for Swiss-type cheese. Such a method would provide the cheese-making industry the means to enhance process control and quality assurance. This paper presents a feasibility study on ultrasonic monitoring of the structural quality of Swiss cheese by using a single-transducer 2-MHz longitudinal mode pulse-echo setup. A volumetric ultrasonic image of a cheese sample featuring gas holes (cheese-eyes) and defects (cracks) in the scan area is presented. The image is compared with an optical reference image constructed from dissection images of the same sample. The results show that the ultrasonic method is capable of monitoring the gas-solid structure of the cheese during the ripening process. Moreover, the method can be used to detect and to characterize cheese-eyes and cracks in ripened cheese. Industrial application demands were taken into account when conducting the measurements.

Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano cheese curd grains size and distribution by image analysis

“…No attempt has been made to transform the bi-dimensional image into a three-dimensional object, because the shape of the curd grains is very far from a sphere or other regular geometric solid, as confirmed by the mean value of the radius ratio (2.36 AE 2.15). The high number of objects to be measured and the impossibility to measure the same object from at least two sides in the same position made unattainable the goal to rebuild a 3-D image by further software image processing, as described by Medina, Skurtys, and Aguilera (2010) or by Eskelinen, Alavuotunki, Haeggstrom, and Alatossava (2007).…”

Quantitative comparison of the eye formation in cheese using radiography and computed tomography data

“…In the quality assessment of traditional Emmentaler PDO cheese, eye formation is assessed by listening to the sound while tapping on the surface of the cheese and by evaluating small cylinders of cheese that are sampled with a cheese trier. Nowadays, more advanced methods of image acquisition, using ultrasound (Albrecht, Ulmann, & Bosset, 1998;Conde, Mulet, Clemente, & Benedito, 2008;Eskelinen, Alavuotunki, Haeggström, & Alatossava, 2007), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI; Rosenberg, McCarthy, & Kauten, 1992), radiography (Kraggerud, Wold, Hoy, & Abrahamsen, 2009), and computed tomography (CT; Lee et al, 2012) are applied.…”

P4G-2 Structural Cheese Analysis Using Phased Array System

“…We continue to develop an ultrasonic method for structural quality analysis of Swiss-cheese in co-operation with two Finnish dairy-companies. We have improved our single-transducer set-up [1] by implementing a phased array solution. This allows faster measurements, dynamic focusing and alleviates cavity shadowing.…”