Respiration of Penicillium camemberti during ripening and cold storage of semi-soft cheese

Abstract

The aim of the present paper was to study the respiration rate of Penicillium camemberti (Pc) growing on a semi-soft cheese. The respiration rate of Pc was measured during ripening and cold storage as a function of environmental parameters, such as partial pressures of oxygen and carbon dioxide, temperature and wrapping stress. Respiration rate decreased when oxygen partial pressure was reduced below 0.05 bar. A Michaelis-Menten equation was used to model O2 consumption and CO2 production as a function of O2 partial pressure from 0.01 to 0.21 bar. During cold storage at 4.5 °C, Michaelis-Menten parameters RO2-max, RCO2-max, Km-O2 and Km-CO2 were 0.021 mmol/cm2/24 h, 0.020 mmol/cm2/24 h, 0.44 mmol/L and 0.70 mmol/L, respectively. From 3 °C to 12 °C, temperature had a large effect on respiration rate. This effect was modeled with an Arrhenius relationship. Moreover, respiration rate slightly increased with CO2 partial pressure from 0.1 to 0.4 while relative humidity and wrapping did not affect Pc respiration. © Inra/Elsevier, Paris.