The present invention provides stable amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC) compositions, and food articles comprising said compositions.

The present invention relates to Lactococcus starter cultures that are compatible with nisin-producing strains and simultaneously do not degrade nisin. The present invention defines starter cultures that can be used in combination with nisin-producing cultures, without degradation of nisin. Furthermore, it is also disclosed that starter cultures can be made by a combination of nisin-producing strains and strains containing nisin-immunity genes and/or and absent of the gene to prevent degradation of nisin.

Disclosed are methods for producing cheeses having the desirable properties of process cheese, using phospholipase enzyme(s), without the addition of emulsifying salts to produce such cheeses. The methods of the invention allow a cheese processor to produce a reduced-sodium process-type cheese without losing the recognized meltability and texture of processed cheese.

The invention provides natural cheese and a method for making natural cheese with specific texture attributes.

The invention relates to a method for making cheese wherein cheese is salted with a salting agent comprising milk minerals and NaCl or a mixture thereof. The invention also relates to ripened cheese having a ratio of K/Na of 0.39 to 4.0 and a K content of more than 0.08%.

Disclosed herein is an anticaking agent for cheese, comprising one or more dairy ingredients; and one or more non-dairy ingredients. When applied the anticaking agent is applied to a divided cheese, it has low visibility on the divided cheese, prevents caking of the divided cheese, and browns similarly to divided cheese without the anticaking agent when baked in an impinger oven at between 425° F. and 450° F. for 5 minutes. Also disclosed are food products containing an anticaking agent described herein, and methods for treating divided cheese for anticaking using an anticaking agent described herein.

The invention relates to a method for making cheese wherein cheese is salted with a salting agent comprising milk minerals and NaCl or a mixture thereof. The invention also relates to ripened cheese having a ratio of K/Na of 0.39 to 4.0 and a K content of more than 0.08%.

A method to produce cheese chips provides that cut cheese slices are frozen and then raised by means of rapid water evaporation due to the application of microwave and vacuum drying. The freezing step is preceded by drying and cooling, and the raised cheese chips containing cheese and flavourings are characterised in that their density does not exceed 0.46 g/cm.sup.3, the porosity does exceed 40%, and the crunchiness does exceed 4.

Disclosed are methods for producing cheeses having the desirable properties of process cheese, using phospholipase enzyme(s), without the addition of emulsifying salts to produce such cheeses. The methods of the invention allow a cheese processor to produce a reduced-sodium process-type cheese without losing the recognized meltability and texture of processed cheese.

A novel substance which adds body to a food product, and a body-adding agent for food products that uses said substance are provided. More specifically, the body adding agent for food products is characterized by having as an active component a peptide, or a salt thereof, that is characterized in that the -glutamyl bond number is 2-4 and the peptide chain length is the -glutamyl bond number +1 to +2, a food product manufacturing method that uses said peptide, and a method for adding body to a food product, characterized by adding said peptide are provided.