The invention pertains to a cheese analogue, comprising water, a root or tuber starch, native potato protein and a fat component. The cheese analogue of the invention has an improved stretch and body, and less off-taste, than known imitation cheese types. The invention further pertains to a method of making said cheese analogue, as well as to food products comprising the cheese analogue.

The invention relates to a polypeptide having chymosin activity which: a. is capable of hydrolyzing bovine alpha s1-casein at position F23F24 so as to form s1-I CN (f24-199) more rapidly than camel chymosin; and b. has a C/P ratio higher than the C/P ratio of bovine chymosin.

A variant polypeptide having chymosin activity, wherein the variant has an amino acid sequence which, when aligned with the chymosin comprising the sequence set out in SEQ ID NO: 2, comprises at least one substitution of an amino acid residue corresponding to any of amino acids 2, 22, 40, 48, 50, 51, 53, 61, 62, 76, 88, 98, 99, 109, 112, 117, 125, 126, 135, 144, 160, 161, 163, 187, 189, 194, 200, 201, 202, 203, 221, 223, 240, 242, 244, 254, 267, 271, 273, 278, 280, 284, 289, 292, 294 or 295 said positions being defined with reference to SEQ ID NO: 2 and wherein the variant has one or more altered properties as compared with a reference polypeptide having chymosin activity. Such a variant polypeptide may be used in the preparation of a cheese.

The present invention is related with the milk industry in general and with the processing industry of milk to produce for lactose-free milk and assessment of the subproduct in particular, and even more particularly in the milk processing industry through different separating means of the components such as micro- and nano filtration.

The function of the invention is to permit a lactose-free milk or a milk without lactose with a sensorial profile similar to that of normal pasteurized milk without lactose using the essential separation steps to reduce production costs, yet another objective was to determine the effect on the organoleptic characteristics of the concentration of natural milk components and concentrations which achieve the first objective, still another objective is to determine the ratio between retentate and permeate to obtain a sensorial profile equivalent to that of a normal pasteurized mil without lactose.