The main objective of the PhD was to determine and prioritize the factors affecting the eye growth in semi-hard cheeses. To do so, a combination of protocols dedicated to the analysis of specific elements of cheese was developed: cheese composition, microstructure, and rheological properties, opening indicators and bacteria metabolism. Several methods were innovating, especially the 3D imaging techniques combined with an image processing allowing the determination of eye’s number and volume but also their location in cheese and their individual specific growth during ripening. Therefore, a strong opening gradient could be identified between under-rind and core zones, with smaller and fewer eyes under-rind, which were growing slower than in the center. Several leads were investigated to explain these differences. The microstructure of the cheese matrix in these two zones did not present any significant difference, so the only parameters left that could cause the opening gradient were the salt content and the rheological properties. Indeed, the salt content and the firmness were higher under-rind than in the center of cheese. The combination of MRI and gas pressure measurement demonstrated that the salt content influences the eye growth gradient through the CO2 production by slowing down the growth and metabolism of bacteria, and maybe also through its solubility in the cheese matrix. The higher firmness under-rind could increase the opening gradient. Therefore, the key factor to control the opening gradient in packaged semi-hard cheeses would be the salt content, even if the process steps occurring before ripening could also be interesting to study, as they set the initial state of cheeses entering ripening.
