Ripening - Ripening procedures will vary with the type of cheese to be produced. The cheese bricks are inoculated with specific strains of fungi for the development of appropriate flavours through protease and lipase activities. Alternatively, proteases and lipases may be used for this purpose. Proteases from B. amyloliquefaciens are used to enhance flavour in cheddar cheese.

Proteases hydrolyse proteins to produce pep tides of variable sizes. Peptides having terminal acidic amino acid residues produce meaty, appetising flavours.

But hydrophobic amino acid residues located non terminally produce bitter flavours: the flavours are the strongest in medium-sized peptides, absent in longer peptides, and decrease with a decrease in the peptide size. Therefore, the kind and the degree of flavour in cheese can be controlled by regulating protein hydrolysis.