Flavorful low-fat and reduced fat cheese

Inactive Publication Date: 2005-02-10
CORNELL RES FOUNDATION INC
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

Manufacturing of fresh low-fat cheese by the present methods is greatly simplified. Only one cheese making unit, starter culture, and coagulation technique is needed. All cheese is aged for the same time and under the same temperature conditions. No separate aging rooms and temperatures for cheeses of different fat content are needed. Because production of lower fat cheeses is a conversion process, it can be done at the packaging location. The low fat cheese can be made from the trimmed cheese produced during packaging of full fat aged block cheese, or it could be made directly by grinding block cheese. Moreover, the conversion of full fat trim to premium quality lower fat cheese can be a higher value utilization of the trim than would be its use in processed cheese. The amount of lower fat cheese produced can also be adjusted to the short term market demand because, once the cheese is converted to the lower fat level, it is immediately placed in a consumer size package, and

Problems solved by technology

However, characterizing the chemistry of Cheddar cheese flavor has been one the most difficult and elusive activities in dairy chemistry.
A variety of chemical compounds (e.g., methanethiol, a variety of other volatile sulfur containing compounds, individual amino acids, small peptides, etc.) have been identified as contributors to aged Cheddar flavor, but no simple formulation exists for reproducibly making flavorful Cheddar cheese.
However, there are many limitations to this approach with respect to the quality characteristics of the lower fat Cheddar cheese.
As a result if starter cultures are not selected with care, the cheese maker may be faced with improper flavor development and evolution of flavor such as bitterness . . . . In addition, moisture control is critical in low fat cheese.” Lower fat Cheddar cheeses tend to be excessively hard and sometimes rubbery in texture.
Thus, it is very difficult to meet consumer expectations for flavor in an aged lower fat Cheddar cheese.
Current low-fat cheese manufacturing procedures are also cumbersome.
Changes in manufacturing procedure within a day increase the c

Method used

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  • Flavorful low-fat and reduced fat cheese
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  • Flavorful low-fat and reduced fat cheese

Examples

Experimental program
Comparison scheme
Effect test

example 1

Preliminary Experiments on Mozzarella Cheese

Water was removed from Mozzarella cheese during the first two weeks of refrigerated storage by grinding, warming, and centrifuging the cheese to remove water. After about 10 to 12 days, water could no longer be removed from the cheese by centrifugation at 25° C. However, as the Mozzarella cheese got older, an increasing amount of fat could be removed. Aged Cheddar cheese was used to further develop a method for physically removing fat to produce reduced fat aged Cheddar cheeses.

example 2

Preliminary Experiments on Cheddar Cheese

Test batches of lower fat Cheddar cheese containing about 25 to 60% less fat were made by removing butter oil from both commercial and university produced full fat aged Cheddar cheese. In general, about 25% of the fat was removed from aged Cheddar cheese by warming the cheese to about 22° C. and centrifuging it at about 24,000 g for 20 minutes. Twenty minutes of centrifugation is probably longer than what was needed under the shredding and warming conditions used. At a warming temperature of about 30° C., a significant amount of butter oil had already leaked out of the cheese before centrifugation, and about 50% of fat could be removed after centrifugation. At 37° C., a 62% fat reduction was achieved.

Starting with an aged Cheddar cheese of about 34% fat and 36.5% moisture, fat separation at 30° C. resulted in a final composition of 16% fat and 45.6% moisture. When fat is removed, it is normal for the percentage of both moisture and protei...

example 3

Temperature Influences Fat Removal

Materials and Methods

Commercial aged Sharp Cheddar cheese was used as a starting material. The cheese was shredded to a diameter of about 4 mm at a temperature of about 4 to 6° C. After shredding, the cheese was warmed to a temperature between 20° C. and 37° C. A Sorval centrifuge with a GSA centrifuge head and a 250 ml capacity screw cap centrifuge tubes were used for separating the butter oil from the bulk of the cheese. The centrifugal force was varied from 800 to 24,000×g for times ranging from 5 to 25 minutes to test for the effect of centrifugal force and duration on butter oil removal. The butter oil was decanted from the centrifuge tubes. The lower layer of reduced fat cheese solids was removed, blended to make it homogeneous, adjusted to various target moisture levels (e.g., 48%, 50%, 52%, etc.) and pressed into small blocks (about 2.5 lbs).

Results

FIG. 1 illustrates the amount of fat removed at different temperatures as a function of...

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PUM

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Abstract

The invention provides flavorful low-fat cheeses that are readily and inexpensively made from high-fat cheeses.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to methods for making low-fat cheese that are simpler than currently available methods and that reliably provide a low-fat cheese that has excellent flavor and texture. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Cheddar cheese aging and flavor development is a natural biological and chemical process that occurs spontaneously. However, characterizing the chemistry of Cheddar cheese flavor has been one the most difficult and elusive activities in dairy chemistry. Even today, no single signature compound has been identified and characterized as the key component of aged Cheddar flavor. Lipolysis plays a prominent role in flavor development of Italian hard cheeses. However, in aged Cheddar cheese the contribution of degradation products from fatty acids is thought to play only a minor role. McGugan et al. (1979) concluded that volatile compounds (both fat and water soluble) may play an important role in the subtle aspects of Cheddar flavor quality, while ...

Claims

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Application Information

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IPC IPC(8): A23C19/06A23C19/072
CPCA23C19/06A23C2250/20A23C19/072
Inventor BARBANO, DAVID
Owner CORNELL RES FOUNDATION INC
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