Cheeses Company Cluster

Jean BERTHAUT (President-Managing Director Fromagerie Berthaut)

  Burgundy and Franche-Comté are two regions with established cheese-making traditions whose practices are entrenched in the geographic and climatic characters of their territories.

  This strong tradition has resulted in the existence of seven AOC certifications for the two regions (two more are in the process of being established), including Comté, France’s most popular AOC cheese.

  The Burgundy and Franche-Comté cheese industries also have the benefit of the considerable resources offered by structures working in scientific research and technology transfer in the fields of microbiology, environmental biology and taste.

  The health benefits of unpasteurised-milk cheeses in terms of biodiversity of microbiological flora – in addition to the contribution of these cheeses to the French paradox – remains an area rich in opportunities for scientific research associating positive nutrition and consumer health.

  The Cheeses Company Cluster brings together cheese-makers, farmers and milk producers, and interprofessional organisations all of whom contribute to the production of the following AOC cheeses:

 Burgundy : Chaource, Époisses and Langres made from cow’s milk, Charollais et Mâconnais (applications pending) made from goat’s milk

 Franche-Comté : Bleu de Gex, Comté, Mont D’Or and Morbier made from cow’s milk.

In addition, the Cheeses cluster utilises the expertise of research teams specialised in the dairy industry and in agronomy research of INRA, the universities of Burgundy and Franche-Comté and ENESAD. Other participants are CRITT 2ABI, CESG, ARITT, ISBA and Laboratoires Spiral.

 Propose strong and credible economic solutions for the optimisation of production and processing systems for a greater number of industry players.

 Reinforce the credibility and selling points of businesses and regional clusters, thanks to a marked improvement in scientific understanding, in particular in the fields of microbiology, nutrition, neurophysiology and the environment.

 Carry out a unifying action among small and medium-sized businesses of the industry sector.

Results will be evaluated in terms of:

 Increased market shares
 Development of regional infrastructure
 Development of local small and medium-sized businesses
 Economic health of the whole of the producers of raw material for the industry sector
 Protection of the valuable culinary heritage of the two regions

The action plan devised by the AOC Cheeses cluster is based around three strategic lines directly linked to sustainable development:

 Protein and animal feed autonomy
It is necessary to accentuate the strengths of AOC certifications through a link between the land and animal feed. This feed must follow guidelines that are coherent with the values that AOCs represent (principally concerning the unnecessary presence of GMOs or chemical soil conditioners).

In order to continue to reinforce this programme of optimisation of animal feed, alternatives are being explored such as the creation of “traced animal feed’ and installations for processing animal feed in close proximity to cheese-production zones.

 Recycling of cheese by-products for energy and agricultural purposes
Recycling lactoserum, waste water and cheese-making residues (through a process of methanisation) and the recycling of reject products (industrial processing).

 Optimisation of factors of uniqueness, taste and health values
The Cheeses cluster has the intention of developing partnerships in the following areas that touch on microbiology and environmental biology:
 Expansion of scientific understanding of the flora of unpasteurised-milk products and its contribution to health and taste.
 Microbiology of ecosystems and environmental biology.
 'Cataloguing' of the unique flora of AOC Cheeses.

Other research topics in relation to the health benefits of AOC cheese:
 The contribution of raw milk to the concept of the French Paradox.
 The notion of taste as a means to fight obesity.
 A multi-factorial approach to the study of the effects of fat from cheese, with an awareness of the complexity of the interaction of the components of fats.

Jean BERTHAUT
03 80 96 44 44