Researchers work to make cheese curds squeaky longer

Researchers are looking for ways to extend the freshness of cheese curds, and that means making the squeak last longer.

Consumers of cheese curds know the more squeak you hear while eating them, the fresher they are. Rani Govindasamy-Lucey's research team is working to understand what makes the squeak and how to make it last longer. She says it's about protein breaking down. "When you have protein and it rubs against your teeth, you get that squeaking noise, that squeaky sound. With storage of the cheese, the protein matrix is breaking down, and therefore the resistance is no longer there and it's yielding, so you don't get the squeaky noise."

One challenge was to come up with a way to measure the squeakiness of the cheese. "We collaborated witht the audiology department here. they have special booths where we can have participants wearing special sensitive microphones attached to the ear canal." Lucey says that allows them to accurately measure the loudness of the squeak when cheese curds are being chewed.

Lucey says the research should lead to keeping cheese fresh longer, which can help with marketing cheese further away from the processing plants, and possibly extend freshness for future cheese exports.

Lucey spoke to Brownfield during the University of Wisconsin Dairy Innovation Hub Dairy Summit in Madison, Wisconsin Wednesday.