This invention relates to methods of pasteurising cheese in the presence of a hydrated hydrocolloid to produce a pasteurised cheese emulsion in a substantially homogeneous form with negligible amounts of additives. Cheese products prepared from such emulsified cheese are also disclosed. Use of the resulting pasteurised cheese emulsion as an emulsifying agent is also described.

A food processing vat is provided with a zoned heat transfer system that provides zoned temperature control to the vat. The zoned heat transfer system selectively transmits heat to or removes heat from different portions of a bottom wall and/or side walks) of the vat. A heat transfer fluid may be directed through the zoned heat transfer system along a flow path that is selected based on a target size and/or a target temperature of a batch of food product being processed in the vat.

A fast and efficient process to manufacture milk curd by direct chemical acidification with acid. The process comprises the steps of heating the milk to a temperature sufficient to pasteurize the milk, cooling the milk, coagulating the milk with the addition of an acid, and incubating the milk and acid mixture for a set period of time. The resulting curd may be employed in the manufacture of different varieties of cheese to which it is subjected to additional steps of salting, molding and/or pressing.

An assembly is provided for turning a food product into slices of food product. The assembly includes a microbial treatment assembly configured to move the food product along a path, and a microbial intervention apparatus configured to substantially reduce an amount of microbes on an exterior surface of the food product while the food product is traveling along the path, a slicing machine downstream of the microbial treatment assembly, the slicing machine being configured to slice the food product into slices, an enclosure in which the slicing machine is positioned, the enclosure being sealed from outside atmosphere, and a microbial treatment apparatus in communication with the enclosure and configured to deter the growth of microbes on the food product.

The invention relates to a method for making a cheese product comprising: — subjecting ripened packed cheese to an anti-microbial treatment; — thereafter removing the packing material from the treated cheese; and — thereafter extruding the treated cheese to form a shaped cheese product or shredding the treated cheese to form a shredded cheese product. The cheese product accordingly obtained is also claimed.

The invention relates to a method for making a cheese product comprising: — subjecting ripened packed cheese to an anti-microbial treatment; — thereafter removing the packing material from the treated cheese; and — thereafter extruding the treated cheese to form a shaped cheese product or shredding the treated cheese to form a shredded cheese product. The cheese product accordingly obtained is also claimed.

A method and a control system of a food treating process made of a plurality of sub-processes is disclosed. The system comprises a plurality of product sensors including at least a spectrograph sensor and a thermograph sensor, plant sensors, control devices, a main hardware and software architecture apt, and a database structure to provide timely and automatic regulation controls, preferably exploiting synergies between various optimised parallel processes.

Heating the natural cheese to cause at least one of modification of the structural chemistry of the proteins, completely or partially denaturing proteins, and inactivating proteolytic enzymes, lipolytic enzymes, and microbial organisms within the cheese allows for the cheese to be fried or grilled while maintaining its consistency and shape, baked as Juustoleipa; heated and mechanically processed as in cooking-stretching process used for mozzarella. The method produces cheese with various structural and melting properties using a single recipe and manufacturing facility.

Cheese sauce products including phospholipid emulsifiers exhibit delayed, reduced or eliminated formation of a surface film upon prolonged exposure to air. The cheese sauce products include a cheese composition that is non-solid at room temperature, a liquid, and a phospholipid emulsifier composition. The cheese sauce products are clean label due to the absence of disodium and/or trisodium phosphates therein. Methods of preventing the formation of a surface film on a cheese sauce product involve mixing a cheese sauce composition with a liquid to form a cheese sauce, and admixing a phospholipid emulsifier composition to the cheese sauce. The phospholipid emulsifier composition constitutes about 0.5 wt % to about 5 wt % of the cheese sauce product.

The present invention relates to a method for moderately increasing the content of dimethyl disulfide in casein-containing processed cheese. The method includes the following steps: taking a cheese powder, adding chymosin for enzymolysis, and subjecting a material obtained after the enzymolysis to puffing and drying to obtain a modified cheese powder; preparing materials; taking the modified cheese powder, heating the modified cheese powder under stirring until the cheese powder is melt, adding sodium bicarbonate to adjust the pH to 6-7, and adding papain for enzymolysis; taking a material obtained after the enzymolysis, adding butter, a skimmed milk powder, fructo-oligosaccharide and water for mixing by stirring, and then adding an emulsifying salt, glutamine transaminase and salt for uniform heating and stirring to obtain a mixture; and subjecting the mixture to heat treatment, hot filling and cooling in sequence to obtain processed cheese.