Food products and systems and methods for their production involve subjecting pasteurized milk to a concentration process thereby forming liquid concentrated milk, then fermenting the liquid concentrated milk to form a fermented concentrated milk product. The fermented concentrated milk product is combined with a liquid emulsifying agent, thereby forming a food product. The food product is formed without the fermented concentrated milk product and the food product reaching a temperature of 145 F.

A method of preparing a less sodium food product involves forming a reaction mixture of one or more of liquid sodium potassium hydrogen phosphate and liquid sodium dipotassium phosphate and combining a food ingredient with the emulsifying salt mixture. A reduced sodium process cheese product is formed of a sol to gel conversion fat stabilized via a hydrated protein matrix by a combination of potassium caseinate and sodium caseinate in which the caseinates are derived from an emulsifying salt mixture of liquid sodium potassium hydrogen phosphate and liquid sodium dipotassium phosphate, which, prior to reaction, accounts for at least about 2.5 and up to about 8.32 percent by weight of a total weight of the process cheese product. The emulsifying salt mixture formed of the reaction mixture remains in solution at ambient conditions for at least two weeks prior to incorporation with a food ingredient.

A method of preparing a less sodium food product involves forming a reaction mixture of one or more of liquid sodium potassium hydrogen phosphate and liquid sodium dipotassium phosphate and combining a food ingredient with the emulsifying salt mixture. A reduced sodium process cheese product is formed of a sol to gel conversion fat stabilized via a hydrated protein matrix by a combination of potassium caseinate and sodium caseinate in which the caseinates are derived from an emulsifying salt mixture of liquid sodium potassium hydrogen phosphate and liquid sodium dipotassium phosphate, which, prior to reaction, accounts for at least about 2.5 and up to about 8.32 percent by weight of a total weight of the process cheese product. The emulsifying salt mixture formed of the reaction mixture remains in solution at ambient conditions for at least two weeks prior to incorporation with a food ingredient.

An analogue cheese composition can be formulated using a whey protein cream ingredient that has historically been considered a waste byproduct of the whey protein isolate production process. The whey protein cream has been found to found to function as a source of protein in the analogue cheese and provide emulsification properties to the other constituent ingredients incorporated into the analogue cheese composition. Accordingly, in some formulations, the analogue cheese composition may include a comparatively low amount of casein protein, with the whey protein cream functionally compensating for the removed casein protein.

The method for producing vegetable hard cheese with improved property and flavor comprises a ingredient input step S100 of preparing and placing ingredients in a container, an emulsifying step S200 of mixing and stirring the ingredients in the container to produce an emulsion, a sterilization step S300 of heating the emulsion for sterilization, a shaped packaging step S400 of packaging the sterilized emulsion in a slice form or block form, a cooling step S500 of cooling and solidifying the emulsion packaged in the slice form or block form to produce a solidified vegetable cheese, and a grinding processing step S600 of grinding the solidified vegetable cheese to produce a vegetable hard cheese.