BYPASSING CURD-WASH IN CONTINENTAL CHEESE MAKING

Abstract

The present invention relates to compositions and methods for producing continental cheese in a non-wash process.

Claims

1. A lactic acid bacteria composition comprising (i) Lactococcus lactis with low post acidification, (ii) lactose negative Lactococcus lactis, (iii) temperature sensitive Streptococcus thermophilus with low post acidification, and, optionally, (iv) a chemical booster.

2. (canceled)

3. A composition according to claim 1, comprising from 2% to 60% of the Lactococcus lactis with low post acidification, from 5% to 75% of the temperature sensitive Streptococcus thermophilus with low post acidification, from 15% to 80% of the lactose negative Lactococcus lactis, and, optionally, from 1% to 20% of the chemical booster.

4. A composition according to claim 1, wherein the Lactococcus lactis with low post acidification acidifies a milk with 3.5% protein by between 0.8 to 1.2 pH units when incubated at 35° C., by 0.9 to 1.4 pH units when incubated at 37° C., and by 1.1 to 1.8 pH units when incubated at 40° C., when inoculated in the milk at 0.01% (w/w).

5. A composition according to claim 1, wherein the temperature sensitive Streptococcus thermophilus with low post acidification acidifies a milk with 3.5% protein by between 0.8 to 1.2 pH units when incubated at 35° C., by 0.9 to 1.4 pH units when incubated at 37° C., and by 1.1 to 1.8 pH units when incubated at 40° C., when inoculated in the milk at 0.01% (w/w).

6-9. (canceled)

10. A method according to claim 16, wherein the lactic acid bacteria composition comprise from 2% to 60% of the Lactococcus lactis with low post-acidification.

11. A method according to claim 16, wherein the lactic acid bacteria composition comprises from 5% to 75% of the temperature sensitive Streptococcus thermophilus with low post acidification.

12. A method according to claim 16, wherein the lactic acid bacteria composition comprises from 15% to 80% of the lactose negative Lactococcus lactis.

13. A method according to claim 17, wherein step (c) comprises adding one or more selected from camel chymosin and variants thereof and bovine chymosin and variants thereof.

14. A method according to claim 17, further comprising a drying step between step (d) and step (f), further comprising drying the curd before molding to reduce wet matter and control moisture content of the cheese.

15. The method according to claim 16, wherein the continental type cheese is selected from Edam, Gouda, Continental processed cheese, and Maas-damer.

16. A method for producing a continental type cheese, comprising (a) adding a composition according to claim 1 to a milk composition.

17. The method according to claim 16, further comprising: (b) optionally, pre-ripening the milk composition; (c) renneting the milk composition; (d) cutting and stirring the milk composition to obtain a milk composition comprising curd and whey; (e) washing the milk composition with a volume of water; (f) optionally, pre-pressing the milk composition; (g) molding and pressing the milk composition to obtain cheese; and (h) salting the cheese; wherein the volume of water added during washing step (e) is less than 10% of the volume of the milk composition at step (a).

Description

DRAWINGS

[0126] FIG. 1: Schematic example of the cheese manufacturing process for making continental cheese with washing and without washing.

[0127] FIG. 2. Overview of the mass balance of mass, fat and protein are shown for the two different processes. Input in the process are shown as blue circles and the milk. Output are shown in the yellow (cheese), brown (whey) and red (samples) circles.

[0128] FIG. 3. The pH development in the cheese at 1 day, 14 days, 6 weeks and 12 weeks.

EXAMPLES

Example 1

[0129] To prove the yield increase the mass balance for the water, fat and protein has been followed during the cheese production according to the processes laid out below.

[0130] The target cheese composition is 44% of moisture, 40% of fat in dry matter and 1.7% of total salt. The pH values of the cheese with the traditional process are 5.85 before brining, 5.30 after brining and more than 5.65 after 75 days of ripening and storage. [0131] A) Conventional continental cheese making process [0132] 1: Milk treatment (Fat — Protein — pH standardization, Pasteurization, Cooling) [0133] 2: Culture addition (pre-ripening 5 to 60 minutes) [0134] 3: Renneting (temperature 30 to 35° C., total coagulation: 12 to 40 minutes) [0135] 4: Cutting (grain curd size 27 to 343 mm3) [0136] 5: Stirring (10 to 25 minutes) [0137] 6: Whey removed (20 to 50 % of total volume) [0138] 7: Water adding (10 to 50 % of total volume, 35 to 50° C.) [0139] 8: Stirring + scalding (20 to 60 minutes, final temperature 36 to 43° C.) [0140] 9: Whey removed (facultative) [0141] 10: Draining + Molding [0142] Draining + pre-pressing 20 minutes + curd cutting + molding [0143] Draining in perforated tubes + cutting + molding [0144] 11: Pressing - Acidification (40 to 120 minutes) [0145] 12: Demolding [0146] 13: Salt brine (depend of the cheese size) [0147] 14: Storage - Ripening (6 to 20° C., 5 to 52 weeks) [0148] B) Continental cheese making process with no curd washing [0149] 1: Milk treatment (Fat — Protein — pH standardization, Pasteurization, Cooling) [0150] 2: Culture addition (pre-ripening 5 to 60 minutes) [0151] 3: Renneting (temperature 30 to 35° C., total coagulation: 12 to 40 minutes) [0152] 4: Cutting (grain curd size 8 to 125 or 343 mm3) [0153] 5: Stirring (10 minutes) [0154] 6: Whey removed (20 to 30 % of total volume) [0155] 7: Stirring + scalding (40 to 60 minutes, final temperature 36 to 43° C.) [0156] 8: Whey removed (facultative) [0157] 9: Draining + Molding [0158] Draining + pre-pressing 20 minutes + curd cutting + molding [0159] Draining in perforated tubes + cutting + molding [0160] 10: Pressing - Acidification (40 to 120 minutes) [0161] 11: Demolding [0162] 12: Salt brine (depend of the cheese size) [0163] 13: Storage – Ripening (6 to 20° C., 5 to 52 weeks)

[0164] FIG. 2 provides and overview of the mass balance of mass, fat and protein for the two different processes. Input in the process are shown as blue circles and the milk. Output are shown in the yellow (cheese), brown (whey) and red (samples) circles.

[0165] As apparent from FIG. 2, the cheese yield when applying the non washed curd process exceeds the yield obtained by the conventional process.

Example 2

[0166] To test if the yield increase was due to the change in process or change in culture, the following were tested in 150 liters vats and the mass balance was followed: [0167] a) Reference (Gouda production with washing and with a regular Gouda culture (C950)) [0168] b) Reference without washing (Gouda production without washing, with a regular Gouda culture (C950)) [0169] c) Non-washed-curd with washing (Gouda production with washing, but made with the special NWC culture) [0170] d) Non-washed-curd (Gouda production without washing with the special NWC culture)

[0171] An overview of the process parameter used to produce the cheeses are shown in table 1.

TABLE-US-00003 Process parameters Production of: Gouda 45+ Treatment Ref(C950 with wash) C950 without wash NWC-culture with wash NWC-cuture without wash Time Value Time Value Time Value Time Value Add milk and stir 07:45 235 08:15 235 08:45 235 09:15 235 Add afilact and CaCl.sub.2 07:55 08:25 08:55 9:25 Add culture 08:00 31.5° C. 08:30 31.5° C. 09:00 31.5° C. 09:30 31.5° C. Add rennet 08:35 09:05 09:35 10:05 Cutting 1 09:10 10 mm 09:40 10 mm 10:10 10 mm 10:40 10 mm Cutting 2 09:15 10 mm 09:45 10 mm 10:15 10 mm 10:45 10 mm Cutting 3 09:20 5 mm 09:50 5 mm 10:20 5 mm 10:50 5 mm Pre-stirring 09:25 235 mm 09:55 235 rpm 10:25 235 mm 10:55 235 rpm Whey off 1 09:40 42 kg 10:10 42 kg 10:40 42 kg 11:10 42 kg Scald start 09.50 36 kg/52° C. 10:20 30 kg/57C° 10:50 30 kg/57° C. 11:20 30 kg/57° C. Scald end/middle stir 10:10 38.5° C. 10:40 38.5° C. 11:10 38.5° C. 11:40 38.5° C. Whe-y off 2 10:50 28.5 kg 11:20 0 kg 11:50 28.5 kg 12:20 0 kg Final stirring 10:55 386 rpm 11:25 386 rpm 11:55 386 rpm 12:25 386 rpm End of Stirring 11:25 11:55 12:25 12:55 Pre-Pressing 1 11:30 1 bar 12:00 1 bar 12:30 1 bar 13:00 1 bar Pre-pressing 2 11:40 2 bar 12:40 2 bar 12:40 2 bar 13:10 2 bar Pre-pressing end 11:55 12:25 12:55 13:25 Filling in monkis 11:55 12:25 12:55 13:25 Pressing 1 12:00 2 bar 12:30 2 bar 13:00 2 bar 13.30 2 bar Pressing 2 12:15 3.5 bar 12:45 3.5 bar 13:15 3.5 bar 13:45 3.5 bar Pressing 3 12:30 5 bar 13:00 5 bar 13:30 5 bar 14.00 09.15 5 bar Pressing end 13:00 13:30 14:00 14:30 In brine 13:15 13:45 14:15 14:45 Out of brine 07:15 07:45 08:15 08:45 salting 18 hours, 22% brine, 10° C., pH 5.2 18 hours, 22% brine, 10° C., pH 5.2 18 hours, 22% brine, 10° C., pH 5.2 18 hours, 22% brine, 10° C., pH 5.2 Packing Vacuum bags Vacum bags Vacuum bags Vacuum bags Storage 1 9° C. in 3 week(s) 9° C. in 3 week(s) 9° C. in 3 week(2 s) 9° C. in 3 week(s) week(s) Storage 2 4° C. for storage 4° C. for storage 4° C. for storage 4° C. for storage

[0172] The result of the trial is shown in table 2. From table 2 it is confirmed that the culture composition of the culture provides the biggest effect on yield.

TABLE-US-00004 The moisture adjusted cheese yield from 100 kg milk are shown for the different processes and different cultures Ref (C950 with wash) C950 without wash NWC-culture with wash NWC-culture without wash Corrected yield 11.09 11.30 11.06 11.39 Fat recovery 95.23 95.37 94.77 95.71 Prot. Recovery 80.31 81.87 80.17 82.57 DM Recovery 52.37 53.36 52.23 53.78 Fat/DM 47.36 46.55 47.26 46.35 DM 60.05 60.62 58.86 59.48 MFFB 55.83 54.86 57.00 55.94 Cheese mass after brine 15.53 15.67 15.80 16.10 ECY (Economical cheese yield [%]) (compared to Ref) 0.90 1.72 3.61 MACY (moisture adjusted cheese yield [%]) (compared to ref) 1.89 -0.27 2.71

[0173] The pH development in the cheese at 1 day, 14 days, 6 weeks and 12 weeks is shown in FIG. 3.

[0174] Overall, the results show that the yield increase for the NWC process compared to a reference process does give a higher yield (1.9%) when the same reference culture was used in the two different processes. When the NWC process is combined with the new special NWC culture as claimed herein, then the yield increase is even higher (2.7%).

[0175] When the special NWC culture is use in a normal Gouda process with washing the yield seems to decrease a bit.

[0176] Hence, it is the combination of omitting the washing step and using the special NWC culture that gives the highest yield increase.

[0177] A large increase in yield is shown when going from the reference process to the NWC process using a regular Gouda culture. This solution is not suitable because of postacidification/low pH of the cheese, which can be seen in FIG. 3. FIG. 3, shows the pH development during ripening of the cheeses with the different processes and different cultures. These results show that the regular Gouda culture cannot be used for the NWC process, it gives a too low pH in the cheese due to the postacidification. Therefore the special NWC culture needs to be used.

Example 3

[0178] The yield increase by the NWC process as applied in example 2 and the NWC culture composition was confirmed at a commercial scale field trial. In this trial, 2 reference vats (control vats with washing and a regular Gouda culture) and 2 NWC vats (process without washing and with the special NWC culture) were produced. The size of the vats were 17.000 liters of milk. The result of the trial can be seen in the table 3.

TABLE-US-00005 shows the results of the field trial done with 17.000 liters in each vat. 2 reference vats (control) and two NWC vats was tested and compared Weight REFERENCE VATS TRIAL VATS control 1 control 2 NWC 1 NWC 2 Before brine Total weight 3423 3529 Weight per vat 1665.1 1668.4 1703.3 1825.7 Moisture 43.48% 42.90% 43.36% 45.57% Target moisture 43.50% 43.50% Weight corrected with 43.5% H.sub.2O 1665.8 1691.7 1708.8 1742.8 Comparing NWC 1 / control 1 43.0 Comparing NWC 1 / control 1 2.58% Comparing NWC 2 / control 2 51.0 Comparing NWC 2 / control 2 3.02%

[0179] These results confirm that a yield increase of 2-3% is possible when using the NWC process and the special NWC culture in commercial scale.