Characterisation of Emmental Cheeses Within Different Brand Products by Combining Infrared and Fluorescence Spectroscopies

The potential of spectroscopic (i.e. mid-infrared and front-face fluorescence) and physicochemical methods combined with chemometric tools was investigated for discriminating Emmental cheeses produced in different regions of France. A total of 20 French Emmental cheeses belonging to different brand products were studied. When principal component analysis was applied separately to each used technique, the discrimination of cheeses was not satisfactory. Therefore, common components and specific weight analysis was applied to the whole data sets: the second common component (q 2), discriminating cheeses of producer C from the others, expressed 78 and 23 % of the inertia of the vitamin A and tryptophan, respectively. On the contrary, the third common component (q 3), discriminating cheeses as a function of their ripening time and/or their manufacturing process procedure, expressed 15, 30, and 16 % of the inertia of the 3,000–2,800, 1,700–1,500 and 1,500–900 cm−1 spectral region. The infrared and fluorescence spectral patterns allowed molecular interpretation and identification of Emmental cheeses according to their both manufacturing process and brand products.