Europe 1 / Photo credit: HOUIN / BSIP VIA AFP and CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP 1:00 p.m., March 27, 2024

Flagship French cheeses, with recipes almost unchanged for centuries, these cheeses are becoming more and more difficult to make. At issue: the molds responsible for their emblematic fermentation, undermined by the food industry and which could disappear by becoming completely sterile.

A threat of extinction, which could be resolved thanks to the science of bacteria. This is the warning given by the CNRS journal last January. At the heart of the culinary turmoil: Roquefort and Camembert, the flagship French cheeses. For centuries, their production has only been possible thanks to ferments, skillfully cultivated micro-organisms capable of transforming milk. But mistreated by the food industry, these molds could soon disappear and with them, our precious cheeses. We take stock.

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Mushrooms that have become infertile

Penicillium camemberti

and 

Penicillium roqueforti

. Here are the pretty names of the strains of mold, which are responsible for making Camembert and Roquefort. To produce cheeses in large quantities, these have been selected by manufacturers for one crucial characteristic: that of meeting the specifications imposed in the food industry. Cheeses must be attractive, have good taste, not display confusing colors, not produce mycotoxins, these toxins secreted by fungi, and above all grow quickly on the cheese which they must colonize, details the CNRS in its article.

However, the agri-food sector has exerted such great selection pressure on mushrooms that cheeses, which are not farmed and not protected by a PDO, today have an extremely poor diversity of micro-organisms. “We have succeeded in domesticating these invisible organisms as we did for the dog, or the cabbage,” explains Jeanne Ropars, laboratory researcher and research fellow at the CNRS.

"But what happened to micro-organisms is what happens every time we select organisms too drastically, large or small: this led to a very strong reduction in their genetic diversity. Particularly among microorganisms, the producers did not realize that they had selected a single individual and that it was not sustainable in the long term,” she warns. Consequences: having become almost infertile, these micro-organisms can no longer reproduce with other strains which could provide them with new genetic material.

Towards a different Camembert?

If 

Penicillium roqueforti

seems less affected by the problem, it is today very complicated for all manufacturers in the sector to obtain spores of 

P. camemberti

 in sufficient quantities to inoculate their production of Norman cheese. However, discoveries preserve producers' hopes for the future of cheese making. First, that of a “wild” population of 

Penicillium roqueforti

, found in Bleu de Termignon, a cheese made in the French Alps in only a handful of farms and which could well save the entire blue cheese industry.

Another hope, that of genetic crossings. The species genetically close to 

P. camemberti

, named 

Penicillium biforme

, is also present on our cheeses because it is naturally present in raw milk, and shows incredible genetic and phenotypic diversity. We could therefore imagine inoculating our Camemberts and Bries with 

P. biforme

, concludes the CNRS journal. On the other hand, this could give different pie charts, in color, texture and even taste. To preserve French gastronomy, cheese lovers will have to get used to it.