Year: 2013
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Almost 40 years ago, a cheese-making process was described in which milk was concentrated to the final total solids content of cheese and no whey draining was made after coagulation. This full concentration (FC) process has since been used in soft cheese-making. However in semi-hard and hard cheese-making concentrated whey proteins have had negative effect on cheese flavor and texture and therefore the technique has not been used for these products. Development of filtration techniques has made it possible to fractionate milk components. Concentration of the major cheese components, fat and casein, is possible with microfiltration (MF). The aim of this study was to develop an FC cheese process using MF and evaporation steps. Cheese-making with the FC process consists of whey protein removal and standardization of lactose and calcium contents. During whey protein removal plasmin (PL) was activated and its heat stability was increased. Protein hydrolysis by PL before cheese-making may reduce cheese yield and coagulation properties and therefore the FC process must be continuous. The calcium-protein ratio affects the final structure of cheese and can be standardized with acidification and filtration steps. During FC of milk, the viscosity of retentate increases and its processability decreases. It was found that acidification reduced the viscosity of retentate and slowed the increase of viscosity during concentration. This observation may be important for FC process development. Secondary proteolysis of FC cheese was apparently at a low level, because no free amino acids (FAA) were found at the end of ripening. Added peptidase increased the FAA content in cheese and with enzyme addition it was possible to alter the ripening process. However, peptidase addition also changed lactose fermentation, and therefore the microbiological composition of LAB changed in cheese. The effects of CaCl2 addition on FC cheese ripening were studied. It was found that CaCl2 addition increased the growth of LAB, probably due to delayed lysis of LAB. It appears that standardization of calcium content is essential to control lyses caused by LAB, which affect cheese ripening.
Source: Työväentutkimus Vuosikirja
Author: Terhi Aaltonen
Language: English
Topic: Proteins in Food Systems
Subfield: Food Science
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2172191178