Camembert, Brie cheese face extinction after fungus fails

Get in my belly. Photo / 123RF

Some of the world’s favourite cheeses could soon melt off shop shelves unless science can find a way to save the mould that makes them.

Camembert and Brie have been highlighted as at risk in a report from the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), which has found that the strain of Penicillium mould used in the production of the popular soft cheeses is losing the ability to reproduce.

The fungus reproduces asexually, cloning itself every time, but our reliance on a narrow strain has pushed the mould into a genetic dead end.

“We’ve been able to domesticate these invisible organisms just as we did with dogs or cabbage,” said researcher Jeanne Ropars.

“But what happened, as it does every time an organism large or small is subjected to overly drastic selection, is that their genetic diversity has been greatly reduced. Working with microorganisms, the cheesemakers didn’t realise that they had selected a single individual, which is not sustainable over the long term.”

The CNRS also warned Roquefort cheese faced similar challenges, though was at lower risk.

Roquefort is created using Penicillium roqueforti and Brie and Camembert both use Penicillium camemberti.

Once food scientists realised they could create spores in the lab, the process became standardised and the cheeses began to lose the variety in colour and texture that they once enjoyed.

The CNRS said these “self-imposed specifications” were put in place to create cheese that was “appealing, with a good flavour, no unappetising colours and no [toxins] secreted by fungi”.

“It is now very difficult for the entire industry to obtain enough spores to inoculate their production,” the report said.

“Blue cheeses may be under threat, but the situation is much worse for Camembert, which is already on the verge of extinction.”

But there is hope in cheeses.

A population of P. roqueforti has been recently discovered in a cheese called Termignon blue and it is hoped it will be able to reproduce with the existing Camembert and Brie mould to create a fungus that will endure.

While this could save Brie and Camembert, they would be forever changed by the introduction of the new genetic material.

The CNRS warned that consumers will have to get used to “diversity in flavour, colour and texture”.