Manufacture of Mozzarella cheese from highly‐concentrated skim milk microfiltration retentate depleted of whey proteins¹

Abstract

A cheese‐making process was developed which utilizes concentration factor (CF) 8, pH 6.0 skim milk microfiltration (MF) retentate to produce low‐moisture, part‐skim (LMPS) Mozzarella cheese. The compositional and proteolytic effects of different levels of rennet concentration, coagulation temperature, and post‐coagulation curd cutting time were evaluated, with rennet concentration having the strongest influence. A post‐coagulation curd cutting time of 15–20 min was found to normalize the extent of κ‐casein hydrolysis during coagulation of concentrated MF retentate. Optimal cheese manufacturing parameters were determined to be 80–100 μL rennet kg–1 MF cheesemilk, coagulation temperature of 32–36 °C, and post‐coagulation curd cutting time of 15 min. As compared with ultrafiltration (UF) retentate cheese manufacture, cheese made from MF retentates has potential for improved textural and functional qualities, along with recovery of highly functional whey proteins (WP) from permeate.

Pre-treatment of cheese milk: principles and developments

“…Increasing MF concentration factor resulted in Mozzarella and Cheddar cheeses with increased moisture, protein and calcium contents, total solids recovery, actual and composition-adjusted cheese yields, proteolysis and flavour and decreased hardness. Increasing chymosin level and adjusting MNFS levels for milk concentrated 1.8 X resulted in Cheddar cheese similar to control cheese [14,15,105,106]. Furthermore, the MF permeate that is produced is an ideal substrate for production of high quality whey protein isolate or further fractionation of individual whey proteins, due to its neutral pH, and lack of residual coagulant or other proteases and lack of caseinomacropeptide [95].…”

“…Processes for the extensive concentration of milk by MF, to the point where whey removal subsequent to addition of rennet and starter is minimal or absent, have also been described [2,15,90]. The development of proteolytic and functional characteristics of Mozzarella cheese made from MF retentates has been reported to be slower than in control cheeses due to the absence of starter culture, lower levels of rennet used and inhibition of cheese proteolysis due to residual whey proteins in the MF retentates [2,15].…”

“…The development of proteolytic and functional characteristics of Mozzarella cheese made from MF retentates has been reported to be slower than in control cheeses due to the absence of starter culture, lower levels of rennet used and inhibition of cheese proteolysis due to residual whey proteins in the MF retentates [2,15]. This problem may be ameliorated through increased rennet levels, standardisation of curd cook times and addition of starter culture [2,15,105].…”

Physicochemical properties of liquid virgin whey protein isolate

“…''Virgin whey'' (VW) is obtained as permeate from microfiltration (MF) of slightly acidified skim milk prior to cheesemaking. It is free of fat, casein, spores, bacteria and cheesemaking foulants (Ardisson-Korat & Rizvi, 2004;Brandsma & Rizvi, 2001) any pretreatment prior to concentration and fractionation by ultrafiltration (UF). Unlike ''classic'' cheese whey, VW is compositionally invariant with the type of cheese subsequently made from the MF retentate.…”

Membrane processes in dairy technology—From a simple idea to worldwide panacea

“…This translates into shelf life extension from 12 to 45 days at 4 1C (Goff & Griffiths, 2006). Whey permeate Delactosed, deproteinized whey a Data in columns 2-6 were collected from reference books on membrane separations (Mulder, 1996;Cheryan, 1998 Mozzarella Adding UF retentate to cheese milk 4 Parmesan Adding PC, MPC or UF retentate to standardize cheese milk 5 Cheddar a The table content was extracted from: 1 Rosenberg (1995); 2 Nelson and Barbano (2005); 3 Madsen and Qvist (1998), Brandsma and Rizvi (2001);4 Govindasamy-Lucey, Jaeggi, Bostley, Johnson, and Lucey (2004); 5 Guinee, O'Kennedy, and Kelly (2006). b VCR, volumic concentration ratio; DF, diafiltration; PC, phosphocaseinate;…”