METHOD FOR PRODUCING CHEESE

Abstract

The invention relates to methods for making cheese, in particular to improving the productivity of the cheese making process by controlling the rate of coagulation of a cheese milk and/or the strength of the gel network formed. Provided is a method for providing a cheese curd, comprising the steps of (i) providing a starting cheese milk that has an increased micellar casein content as compared to natural bovine milk; (ii) adding non-micellar casein protein to the cheese milk to obtain a casein-supplemented cheese milk; (iii) subjecting the casein-supplemented cheese milk to a coagulation process to form a gel; and (iv) cutting the gel into a cheese curd.

Claims

1. A method for preparing a cheese curd, comprising: (i) providing a starting cheese milk that has an increased micellar casein content as compared to natural bovine milk; (ii) adding non-micellar casein protein to the cheese milk to obtain a casein-supplemented cheese milk; (iii) subjecting the casein-supplemented cheese milk to a coagulation process to form a gel; and (iv) cutting the gel into a cheese curd.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the starting cheese milk has a micellar casein content of at least 2.7 wt %,

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the starting cheese milk has a micellar casein content between 3 to 15 wt %.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the starting cheese milk comprises one or more of skim milk, whole milk and/or cream supplemented with micellar casein isolate (MCI), milk protein concentrate (MPC) and/or concentrated milk.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the starting cheese milk comprises.

6. The method according to claim 1, comprising adding the non-micellar casein protein in an amount of at least 0.1 wt %.

7. The method according to claim 1, comprising adding the non-micellar casein protein in an amount between 1 to 10 wt %.

8. The method according to claim 1, comprising subjecting the casein-supplemented cheese milk to a conventional renneting procedure to form a gel.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the non-micellar casein protein comprises caseinate, calcium caseinate and/or sodium caseinate.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the non-micellar casein protein comprises ß-casein.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the non-micellar casein protein comprises Casein Macro Peptide (CMP).

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the CMP is added in the form of a cheese whey comprising CMP generated during rennet hydrolysis of casein.

13. The method according to claim 11, wherein the cheese whey comprising CMP generated during the renneting procedure of (iii) is used in (ii) to obtain a casein-supplemented cheese milk.

14. A method for increasing the yield of a cheese making process wherein a starting cheese milk is used that has an increased micellar casein content as compared to natural bovine milk, the method comprising: (i) providing a starting cheese milk that has an increased micellar casein content as compared to natural bovine milk; (ii) adding non-micellar casein protein to the cheese milk to obtain a casein-supplemented cheese milk; (iii) subjecting the casein-supplemented cheese milk to a coagulation process to form a gel; (iv) cutting the gel into a cheese curd and separating the whey from the curd; and (v) processing the curd into a cheese.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the starting cheese milk has a micellar casein content of at least 2.7 wt %.

16. The method according to claim 14, wherein the starting cheese milk comprises one or more of skim milk, whole milk and/or cream supplemented with micellar casein isolate (MCI), milk protein concentrate (MPC) and/or concentrated milk.

17. The method according to claim 14, wherein the starting cheese milk comprises a conventional cheese milk supplemented with MCI, MPC and/or concentrated milk.

18. The method according to claim 14, comprising adding the non-micellar casein protein in an amount of at least 0.1 wt %.

19. The method according to claim 14, comprising subjecting the casein-supplemented cheese milk to a conventional renneting procedure to form a gel.

20. The method according to claim 14, wherein the non-micellar casein protein comprises caseinate, calcium caseinate and/or sodium caseinate.

21. The method according to claim 14, wherein the non-micellar casein protein comprises Casein Macro Peptide (CMP).

22. The method according to claim 21, wherein the CMP is added in the form of a cheese whey comprising CMP generated during rennet hydrolysis of casein.

23. The method according to claim 21, wherein the cheese whey comprising CMP generated during the renneting procedure of (iii) is used in (ii) to obtain a casein-supplemented cheese milk.

Description

DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES

[0051] FIG. 1 shows the results of Schreiber firmness tests (Example 2)

[0052] FIG. 2 shows the results of the aggregation control tests (Example 3)

EXPERIMENTAL SECTION

Materials and Methods

[0053] In examples below several sources of caseins have been used. When referring to Sodium Caseinate, this was Excellion EM7 (FrieslandCampina

[0054] DMV), for Calcium Caseinate it was Excellion EM9 (FrieslandCampina DMV).

[0055] When referring to CMP (Casein Macro Peptide), three 3 different interchangeable preparations were used: [0056] 1. A commercial CMP sample [0057] 2. A sample prepared from cheese whey through following procedure: [0058] a. Heating cheese whey in batch for 1 hour at 95° C. to denature all whey proteins. [0059] b. Removing whey proteins through 300 gm sieve and centrifuge. [0060] c. Passing residual whey over 10 kD ceramic membrane to remove lactose and minerals. [0061] 3. CMP concentrated in cheese whey that was obtained from cheese manufacturing trials in which the cheese milk was diluted with one of the above preparations and was passed over a 5 kD membrane at 10° C. at 3 bar.

[0062] A CMP concentration of >80% protein on dry matter was found in each of the above preparation as determined by RP-HPLC analysis.

[0063] The gel strength of the coagulum was determined using the established Schreiber test (Muthukumarappan et al. (1999) J. Dairy Sci. 82: 1068-1071). Briefly, this test involves putting the coagulum in the centre of a test plate on which concentric circles are drawn; the increase in area during gradual collapse of the coagulum is a measure for its firmness—i.e. higher numerical scores mean more surface covered and thus a less firm coagulum.

EXAMPLE 1

Addition of Caseinate Reduces Gel Strength of Casein-Enriched Cheese Milk

[0064] A cheese milk enriched in micellar casein was prepared by mixing 125 g of water, 280 g Skim Milk and 645 g Full Cream Milk. The mixture containing ˜2.5 wt % of micellar casein was preheated to 50° C. Each of 3 beakers was filled with 350 grams of this mixture, and 2.0 g of CaCl2 was added to each beaker.

[0065] 1.0 g of Sodium Caseinate was added to beaker 2 and 1.0 g of Calcium Caseinate was added to beaker 3.

[0066] The resulting blend was cooled down to temperature of 35° C. and agitated for 10 minutes to ensure homogeneous distribution of all ingredients.

[0067] 2.0 g of rennet (1:9 dilution of Kalase—Calf Rennet, CSK) was added to each beaker and agitated for another 5 minutes. The contents of each beaker was evenly distributed over 5 equally sized and shaped cups. Coagulation was allowed under controlled temperature of 35° C.

[0068] After 40, 50, 60, 70 and 80 minutes respectively, one cup was turned on a Schreiber test plate and the surface area formed by the gel was measured.

[0069] For each point in time it was observed that the gel from beakers 2 and 3, covered a larger area and thus was less firm compared to reference beaker 1.

EXAMPLE 2

Addition of Whey Comprising Caseinate Reduces Gel Strength of MCI-Enriched Cheese Milk

[0070] 1200 g MCI (Micellar Casein Isolate—MCI80TL from FrieslandCampina DOMO factory in Lochem) and 428 g Cream (40% fat) were separately preheated to 50° C. and then mixed to a micellar casein content of ˜10%. [0071] 4 beakers were filled each with 407 grams of this mixture.

[0072] Two 2 different types of “whey” were prepared: [0073] a. Regular cheese whey diluted with water to 2% w/w of lactose [0074] b. Regular cheese whey diluted with water to 2% w/w of lactose to which 2% of CMP was added.

[0075] The whey preparations were heated to 50° C. Then: [0076] To the first beaker 644 g of diluted cheese whey as prepared under a. was added. [0077] To the second beaker 644 g of CMP-whey as prepared under b. was added. [0078] To the third beaker 644 g of diluted cheese whey as prepared under a. was added. Also 1.0 g of sodium caseinate was added. [0079] To the fourth beaker 644 g of diluted cheese whey as prepared under a. was added. Also 1.0 g of calcium caseinate was added. [0080] The beakers were cooled down to a temperature of 35° C. and agitated for 10 minutes to ensure homogeneous distribution of all ingredients. [0081] 0.2% w/w of rennet (1:9 dilution of Kalase - Calf Rennet, CSK) was added to each beaker and agitated for another 5 minutes. [0082] The contents of each beaker was equally distributed over 4 equally sized and shaped cups. [0083] The content of all cups was coagulated under controlled temperature of 35° C. [0084] After 40 and 60 minutes respectively one cup was turned on a Schreiber test plate and the surface area was measured.

[0085] For each point in time the gel from beakers 2, 3 and 4, it was observed that the gel covered a larger area and thus was less firm compared to reference beaker 1 (see FIG. 1).

EXAMPLE 3

Controlling Aggregation of Para-Casein Micelles with Non-Micellar Casein

[0086] The following procedure was followed: [0087] MCI was dissolved to 3.5% w/w protein in Milk Permeate. [0088] To 5 test tubes was added:

[0089] Nothing—control

[0090] 0.1 w% sodium caseinate

[0091] 0.1 w% calcium caseinate

[0092] 0.1 w% B casein

[0093] 0.25 w% sodium caseinate [0094] The content of each tube was renneted for 75 minutes at 30° C. [0095] Next the test tubes were centrifuged 10 minutes at 2000 g. [0096] The sediment weight was determined.

[0097] As shown in FIG. 2, it was observed that: [0098] a) Significantly less sediment was formed in each sample compared to the control. Sodium caseinate was more effective than ß-casein, which in turn was more effective than calcium caseinate. [0099] b) Increasing the amount of sodium caseinate further reduced the amount of sediment formed.

EXAMPLE 4

Effect of CaCl2 on Caseinate-Impaired Coagulation

[0100] Cheese milk was prepared from (control/with CMP/with sodium caseinate): [0101] 56.1 g water/85.6 g whey/42.3 g MCI/16.0 g cream (control cheese milk) [0102] 55.0 g water/83.9 g whey/2.8 g CMP/42.3 g MCI/16.0 g cream [0103] 55.0 g water/83.9 g whey/2.8 g sodium caseinate/42.3 g MCI/16.0 g cream

[0104] Three solutions with different concentrations of CaCl2 were added to each of the cheese milk preparations: [0105] 0% (control) [0106] 0.25% w/w of 35% CaCl2 solution [0107] 0.50% w/w of 35% CaCl2 solution

[0108] All preparations were renneted at 30° C. and gel rheology was measured in a rheometer.

[0109] It was observed that for each cheese milk, after 85 minutes:

[0110] 1) With respect to CMP addition: [0111] Addition of CMP impaired the renneting. No coagulation occurs in the absence of added CaCl.sub.2 [0112] CaCl.sub.2 addition partially restores rennetability but the firmness of the curd formed remained lower than the equivalent control cheese milk samples (i.e. control cheese milk sample with same CaCl.sub.2 content).

[0113] 2) With respect to sodium caseinate addition: [0114] Sodium Caseinate addition impaired the renneting. No coagulation occurs in the absence of added CaCl.sub.2. [0115] CaCl.sub.2 strongly improves rennetability: the firmness of the curd is higher than the equivalent control cheese milk samples.

EXAMPLE 5

Addition of CMP slows down the renneting time

[0116] A cheese milk (8 wt % casein protein, 3 wt % lactose) was obtained by blending:

TABLE-US-00001 MCI 1728 g Cream 684 g Whey 561 g Lactose 27 g

[0117] Further: [0118] 1 bucket of cheese milk was preheated to 35° C. and 2 buckets to 42° C. [0119] 1.5% w/w CMP was added to one of the 42° C. buckets. [0120] 2% w/w of rennet was added to all buckets (1:9 dilution of Kalase—Calf Rennet, CSK).

[0121] It was observed that the renneting time for the 35° C. bucket was 14 minutes, while the 42° C. bucket did coagulate in 6 minutes only. Addition of CMP restored the coagulation time at 42° C. to 19 minutes.