Professor Paul Kindstedt's cheese crystal research:"Size, Shape and Identity of Surface Crystals and their Relationship to Sensory Perception of Grittiness in American Astisanal and European PDO Soft Smear Ripened Cheeses" has been choosen to receive the International Dairy Foods Association Research Award in Dairy Food Processing.  He will be presented with the award at the American Dairy Association's annual meeting in Knoxville, Tennessee in June.

Co-authors on this research are Pat Polowsky, Paul Kindstedt's NFS MS graduate student, and John Hughes, Professor in UVM"s Geology Department.  Pat was chosen to present a poster presentation on this research at the 10th Cheese Symposium in Rennes, France in April.

 "Soft smear-ripened cheeses undergo extensive surface crystallization and radical demineralization of calcium, magnesium and phosphorus, which likely contribute to radial softening during ripening.  Furthermore, anectodotal evidence suggests that grittiness is a common characteristic of smear-ripened cheese.  The prinary aims of the present study were to evaluate the intensity of perceived grittiness in U.S. artisnal and Euopean PDO smear-ripened cheeses and to relate perceived grittiness to the size, shape and identity of crystals present in the cheese surface smears."