Some perspectives on the use of cheese as a food ingredient

Abstract

-Over the past few decades, cheese has been growing in commercial importance in the food industry because of its use as an ingredient, including as a topping on pizza, filling in appetizers, slices on hamburgers, and sauces in pasta dishes. Traditionally, cheeses like Mozzarella, cheese powders, processed and imitation cheeses were the main ingredient cheeses but now there are a growing number of other cheese types being used as ingredients, e.g. in the US these include pizza type (i.e. cheese not meeting the standard of identity for Mozzarella), Hispanic and cream cheeses. For ingredient cheeses, such as Mozzarella, considerable research has been conducted on the impact of altering milk composition, manufacturing conditions and the type of starter cultures on the functional properties that are important for its use as an ingredient, e.g. slicing, shredding and melting properties. It is now recognized that insoluble calcium associated with the caseins in cheese plays a critical role in cheese texture, including melting properties. The total and insoluble calcium contents can be controlled by altering the critical pH values during manufacture, e.g. at coagulation or whey draining. Post-manufacture changes in the proportions of insoluble/soluble calcium are primarily responsible for most of the early changes in cheese texture and not proteolysis as was commonly believed until recently. End-users of cheese in various foods routinely demand consistent functionality over a long shelf-life and the cheese has to meet very specific performance targets, e.g. color and flow. Various approaches to modify the insoluble calcium content in cheese, studies on the performance of cream cheese as an ingredient and strategies to extend the acceptable performance window for cheese are described. A framework is presented that allows cheese texture and functional properties to be described in terms of specific molecular interactions of the caseins. Résumé -Quelques perspectives sur l'utilisation du fromage en tant qu'ingrédient alimentaire. Au cours des dernières décennies, le fromage a pris une importance commerciale croissante dans l'industrie alimentaire du fait de son utilisation comme ingrédient, tel que garniture sur pizza ou dans les produits apéritifs, tranches sur hamburgers et sauces dans les plats de pâtes. Les fromages comme la Mozzarella, les poudres de fromages, les fromages fondus ou imitations ont été traditionnellement les principaux fromages ingrédients. Actuellement, un nombre croissant d'autres types de fromage sont utilisés comme ingrédients, comme par exemple aux États-Unis, les fromages de type pizza (c'est-à-dire des fromages non conformes aux normes pour l'appellation Mozzarella), des fromages hispaniques ou des Cream-cheeses. Pour les fromages ingrédients tels que la Mozzarella, une recherche considérable a été faite sur l'impact des modifications de la composition du lait, des conditions de fabrication et du type de levain sur les propriétés fonctionnelles importantes pour leur utilisation comme in...

Potential of Multispectral Imager to Characterize Anisotropic French PDO Cheeses: A Feasibility Study

“…This could suggest that the image texture of cheese is strongly related to both physicochemical and structure properties. Indeed, calcium content in cheese has been recognized as an important parameter for determining cheese texture [34] since it contributes largely in the formation of coagulum and for consequent cheese. The SP and DP values can be considered as a result of the combination of both the concentration and interaction of the different components present in cheese which could explain the good prediction of these two parameters.…”

Physical properties of pizza Mozzarella cheese manufactured under different cheese-making conditions

“…Low-moisture part-skim pizza Mozzarella is a variety of pasta filata cheese used extensively as a topping on baked dishes in North America. Ingredient cheeses such as Mozzarella must exhibit key physical attributes in both the unmelted and melted states (Lucey, 2008).…”

Textural Properties of Herby Cheese

“…All industrial herby cheeses had significantly higher textural values than those of artisanal herby cheeses (Table II), due to the differences in cheese manufacturing parameters such as raw milk, herbs used, processing technology, ripening conditions, packaging, and temperature, etc. The variation in cheese varieties are mostly due to differences in manufacturing methods (e.g., pre-and post-coagulation operations), starter cultures and/or ripening conditions which lead to the development of characteristic flavor, and the consumer preference for the functionality of the product [25]. Both rheological parameters and texture are influenced by factors that include casein-casein, casein-water, and casein-fat interactions, the state of water (either bulk, or bound to the casein matrix), pH and the state of calcium (either ionic or bound to the casein matrix), temperature, sodium chloride content, and the extent of proteolysis [17].…”