A joint research team consisting of Hosei University, Showa University, and Kyoto University of Advanced Science collected mites used for ripening cheese from cheese factories in three production areas in Germany and France, and found that they all belonged to the cheese mites species. .Although the cheese-producing regions were more than 3 km apart from each other, there was no difference in geographical kinship.
In Europe, there are cheeses that use mites for aging as a traditional method.This mite belongs to the family of acarids, and has appeared in French literature since the mid-18th century, such as Pascal's "Pensée" and La Fontaine's "Fables," a collection of Aesop's fables.
The joint research team collected mites directly from the ripening warehouses of three cheese factories: Milbenkäse in Würchwitz, a suburb of Leipzig, Germany; Mimolette, in Flanders, France, located on the border with Belgium; and Artizou, in the Auvergne region of central France. and investigated by morphological information and genetic analysis.
As a result, all the mites used for cheese ripening in the three regions were found to be the "cheese acarina" species.However, despite the fact that each production area is more than 3 km away, there was no difference in geographical kinship.For unknown reasons, it is possible that during the co-spreading of cheese and cheese mites across Europe, only the cheese factories that favored the mites survived, or that the bees caused a genetic shuffle. .
It is said that cheese using mites has a unique flavor, but there is no direct involvement because there are cheeses in which mites-derived aroma components are not detected.In addition, cheese mites are unlikely to cause mite allergies, and no cases of anaphylactic shock caused by cheese using mites have been found.
Paper information:[Experimental and Applied Acarology] Do 'cheese factory-specific' mites (Acari: Astigmata) exist in the cheese-ripening cabinet?
