14A-48 |
Melt profile characteristics of shredded Cheddar and Mozzarella cheeses |
K. MUTHUKUMARAPPAN, Dept. of Agricultural & Biosystems Engineering, South Dakota State Univ., PO Box 2120, Brookings, SD 57007 and C. M. Chen, Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, 1605 Linden Dr., 226-A Babcock Hall, Madison, WI 53706-1519. Understanding the physical / chemical / sensory characteristics of shredded cheese over time when packaged in consumer-sized pouches will assist cheese makers in developing end user specific functional characteristics in shredded cheese. Our objective was to characterize physical characteristics of shredded cheese in consumer-sized packages and to determine the effect of flow agents on the physical properties of shredded cheese. We have investigated the effect of different flow agents (cellulose and potato starch) on melt profiles of both fine and coarse shred of Mozzarella and Cheddar cheeses. Melt profile analysis characterizes the time, temperature and rate of heating on cheese as it softens, flows, and ceases to flow. These comprehensive evaluations of cheese melt measures distinctive attributes allowing us to correlate how an alteration in a cheese manufacturing protocol or flow agent affects specific shred melt characteristics. From the results we found that the flow agent significantly affected the melt profile characteristics of both fine and coarse shred of Mozzarella and Cheddar cheeses. Both softening temperature and softening time of the Cheddar cheese shred increased significantly from 28 to 40 C and from 110 to 175 s, respectively with addition of flow agent to the shreds. On the other hand both softening temperature and softening time of the Mozzarella cheese shred decreased significantly from 40 to 32 C and from 180 to 115 s, respectively with addition of flow agent to the shreds. The results from this study will enable cheese makers to design manufacturing practices which result in specific melt/flow characteristics for food application systems.
Session 14A, Dairy Foods: General developments in dairy technology I
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