Patent Summary: Method for Judgment of Cheddar Grade Based on Identification Characteristic Flavor Composition - US Patent 11,293,906 B2
Summary
Here's a detailed summary of US Patent 11,293,906 B2, titled "Method for Judgment of Cheddar Grade Based on Identification Characteristic Flavor Composition."
What the Patent Is About
This patent presents a scientific, instrument-based method for determining the quality grade of cheddar cheese by analyzing its volatile flavor compounds. Instead of relying on subjective sensory evaluation (human taste and smell), the method uses:
- Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS)
- Aroma extract dilution analysis (AEDA)
- Gas chromatography–olfactometry (GC-O)
- K-means clustering
- Support vector machine (SVM) classification
The goal is to identify a small set of "identification characteristic flavor compounds" whose concentrations can be used to objectively and accurately classify cheddar cheese into mild/young, medium, or mature/strong grades.
The Idea Behind the Patent
Traditional cheddar grading relies on sensory evaluation, which is:
- Subjective
- Inconsistent
- Time-consuming
- Lacking in supporting data
This patent proposes a data-driven alternative:
- Identify the most important flavor compounds in cheddar cheese.
- Reduce the number of compounds to a manageable set using clustering.
- Train a machine learning model (SVM) to recognize grade based on compound concentrations.
- Predict the grade of unknown cheese samples by measuring the same compounds.
The innovation lies in the systematic reduction of flavor compounds to a minimal yet highly predictive set, enabling objective, repeatable, and scalable quality assessment.