While the quality of Russian cheeses has improved since 2014, when many European cheeses were sanctioned, manufacturers now face challenges due to the need to renew equipment that was previously supplied from abroad. Additionally, most of the cheese starters are also imported, which means the industry will be in a quandary if they come under sanctions. This was told socialbites.ca by microbiologist Grigory Rogov, deputy director of innovation and development at the All-Russian Research Institute of Butter and Cheese Making.
“Cheese-making equipment was never produced in Russia. The reason for this was that earlier there was a split in the socialist camp: the USSR was engaged in cheese-making technologies, and Hungary produced equipment for the entire socialist camp. When the collapse of the socialist camp took place, the doors were opened to global corporations. Now our cheese factories have equipment from Poland, Germany, Spain, the Czech Republic and Denmark. Domestic companies produce only small-sized equipment for small cheese factories. Everything is imported in big factories. Therefore, there was a shortage of spare parts. However, as far as I can see, this issue is resolved. “Our metalworking, electronics companies are trying to make copies of parts,” he said.
Rogov noted that if imported yeast cultures were no longer supplied to Russia, all the workshops would have to be rebuilt according to the technology used in the USSR: the bacterial culture was placed in milk, which served as a nutrient medium for it. bacteria multiplied and after a while this milk started to be used in starter quality. Now the bacterial culture concentrate is immediately placed in a container with milk in which the cheese will be made. This increases the cost of production, as it increases the consumption of concentrate, but allows you to skip the sourdough production stage. Another way out of the situation is the construction of bio-factories for the production of concentrates.
For more information on what kind of milk can be used to make cheese and why little parmesan is produced in Russia, see. material “socialbites.ca”.