GB2308052A - Cheese production - Google Patents

Description

CHEESE AND CHEESE PRODUCTION The present invention relates to the production of cheese. The invention permits the production of cheese of a conventional acceptable texture and taste at significantly lower fat content than usual, and of cheese of a conventional higher fat content with better than usual taste and texture.

The invention provides a process for producing cheese which comprises providing low-fat cheese milk, converting the cheese milk to low fat fromage frais and blending the resulting fromage frais with cream, characterised by (i) homogenising at least part of the cheese milk [preferably at high pressure e.g. of at least 10 Mpa (100 bar)] before its conversion to fromage frais and/or (ii) using fatting cream which is enriched with membrane substance and homogenized [preferaby at high pressure, e.g. at least 10 Mpa].

The cheese milk suitably has a fat v/v content of up to 2%, e.g. 0.5 to 2%. The cheese milk suitably contains at least one fat selected from milk fat, other animal fats and vegetable fats, preferably selected from milk fat, anhydrous milk fat, fractionated milk fat, decholesterized milk fat, butter, other animal fats and vegetable fats (natural and/or hardened and/or de-odorized). The cheese milk may consist of or include (partially) skimmed milk and/or buttermilk; it may include one or more of butter serum, cream serum, and whole milk; preferably it is selected from (partially) skimmed milk, buttermilk, mixtures thereof, and mixtures of any of these with butter serum and/or cream serum. The cheese milk may be a liquid or mixture of liquids as initially obtained (e.g.

from milk or cream or butter), or it may be partly or wholly reconstituted. The cheese milk is preferably used untreated, as initially obtained, but in other embodiments at least part of it is pressure homogenized (e.g. at 4 to 400 MPa) optionally after heat treatment below its boiling point (e.g.

at 50 to 800C). When the cheese milk is to be a mixture of milk fractions, then just one or some of these (or just part of the mixture of all fractions) may be homogenized before mixing with the remainder to form the cheese milk. When the cheese milk comprises membrane substance-enriched fraction(s), some or all of the latter is preferably homogenized before mixing with any remaining cheese milk component; for example when the cheese milk is to contain (partially) skimmed milk plus one or more such enriched fractions, some or all of a membrane substance-enriched component may be homogenized before mixing with (partially) skimmed milk and any remaining component.

The cheese milk can be converted to fromage frais using conventional starter culture, rennet and processing steps, and the fat content of the resulting cheese is increased by mixing it with cream - e.g. of 10 to 30% fat content.

According to the invention either or both of the low fat cheese milk (or part thereof) and the blending cream is/are pressure homogenized. The homogenisation pressure in each case is most suitably at least 10 Mpa, and may be 15, 20, 25 or even 40 Mpa. When the cheese milk or part thereof is homogenized, conventional cream may be used for fatting the fromage frais, though homogenized (preferably membrane substance-enriched) cream can be employed instead. When the cheese milk is not homogenized, then the fatting cream is preferably after enrichment with membrane substance. Such enriched cream is e.g. a cream of normal membrane substance content diluted with liquid enriched in membrane substance (e.g. diluted with one or more of buttermilk, butter serum and cream serum) or a cream reconstituted from fat(s) and such enriched liquid, or from fat(s), membrane substance and water.

Thus one may first provide or prepare a cream-type fat- inwater emulsion, this usually having a fat content of 10-60 weight percent, e.g. 30-50 weight percent. This emulsion may be a normal cream or an emulsion prepared from water and any one, two or more of fats selected from milk fat, anhydrous milk fat, fractionated milk fat, decholesterized milk fat, butter, other animal fats and vegetable fat (natural and/or hardened and/or de-odorized). The fat content of this emulsion is then reduced (e.g. to from 10-30 weight percent), and its content of membrane substance is increased, by adding thereto material enriched in membrane substance - e.g. one or more of buttermilk, butter serum and cream serum (butter or cream minus at least most of the fat); when cream serum is employed it is preferably made from a cream with a fat content of from 10-82 weight percent.In another type of embodiment, the enriched cream is formed by emulsifying fat (e.g. one or more selected from milk fat, fractionated milk fat, anhydrous milk fat, de-cholesterolized milk fat, butter, other animal fats and vegetable fats), optionally at elevated temperature below the boiling point (e.g. 50-80 C), with membrane substance-enriched liquid (e.g. one or more of natural and reconstituted buttermilk, butter and cream sera, and membrane substance and water).

The homogenisation of cream for fatting the initially formed cheese is at high pressure, e.g. at 4-40 MPa, preferably at least 10 Mpa, and most preferably 15-25 MPa. The high pressure homogenization, particularly in the presence of enhanced levels of membrane substance, gives significant increase in globular fat surface without undesirable homogenization of the milk solid non-fat whilst maintaining the increased fat surface covered by the membrane substance present. When the cheese milk is not enriched in membrane substance, then the fatting cream should be so enriched before homogenisation; when the cheese milk is so enriched, then the fatting cream will usually still be so enriched before homogenisation, but this may be to a lesser extent.Most preferably the amount of membrane substance (from cheese milk and/or fatting cream) should be sufficient to cover all fat globule surface area in the fatted cheese product. The cream for fatting the initially formed cheese can be heat-treated below its boiling point (e.g. at 50-80"C) before the pressure homogenisation, but it is usually preferred to avoid this; without such heating, the proportion of water in the fatted cheese may remain higher without affecting taste, texture or quality.

Herein, "enriched in (or with) membrane substance" and equivalent expressions have their normal meaning of having a higher membrane substance to fat ratio than natural whole milk. Butter and cream serum are butter and cream minus some (usually most) or all of the fat. The term "fat" herein includes oil where appropriate, e.g. in the case of vegetable oil. Herein, in accord with conventional usage, W fat for cheese means the wt.% of fat in the total dry matter content of the cheese, whereas for all other materials (e.g. for cream, cheese milk etc.) the % fat means the vol.% of fat in the material. Herein "(partially) skimmed milk" means partially or fully skimmed milk.

The invention is illustrated by the following working Examples.

EXAMPLE 1 : Dairy cream with a fat content of 40 weight percent was diluted with cream serum (obtained by removal of fat from another batch of the same cream) to a fat content of 20 weight percent. The diluted cream, not subjected to any heat treatment, was homogenized at a pressure of 20 MPa.

EXAMPLE 2 : Example 1 was repeated using for dilution, instead of the initially formed liquid cream serum, the dried and powdered serum plus water.

EXAMPLE 3 : Low-fat fromage frais, which is fatted afterwards with cream, is produced as follows Unhomogenized skimmed milk is used as the cheese milk; 1% mesophyllic starter culture and rennet (1-2 ml for 100Q cheese-making milk) are added at 26-280C and after 16-20 hours fermentation the curds are stirred and separated from the whey with a Quark centrifuge. A low-fat fromage frais is obtained with about 20 wt.% solids, which is then fatted to 20 wt.% total fats in the dry matter with the homogenized diluted (20%) cream obtained as described in Example 1.

The Example is repeated using homogenized diluted cream obtained as in Example 2.

In each case the product fromage frais is comparable to a fromage frais fatted with a conventional cream to 40% total fats.

EXAMPLE 4 : A low-fat cheese-making milk is produced by the following method An unhomogenized mixture of equal parts buttermilk and cream serum is mixed with four times the amount of skimmed milk. The cheese-making milk thus obtained is adjusted to the fermentation temperature of 250C and mesophyllic starter culture and rennet (0.5 ml for 100Q cheese-making milk) are added. The fermentation time amounts to 16-20 hours, until a pH of 4.5 is reached.

After stirring the curds and heating to 40-420C, ultrafiltration is effected to a dry weight of 20% in the concentrate.

The fromage frais thus obtained is in the low-fat range (about 5 wt. total fats in the dry matter). This fromage frais is fatted with homogenized diluted cream as obtained in Example 1 to a fromage frais with higher fat content, which is superior in taste and texture to a fromage frais which has been fatted with conventional cream. Similar results are obtained using homogenized diluted cream obtained as in Example 2.

EXAMPLES: Example 3 is repeated using as cheese milk an unhomogenized 50/50 mixture of skimmed milk and cream serum.

EXAMPLE 6 Low-fat fromage frais, which is fatted afterwards with cream, is produced as follows: Skimmed milk, in one embodiment untreated and in another heat treated at 65-750C, is homogenized at 10 MPa; 1% mesophyllic starter culture and rennet (1-2 ml for 100Q cheese-making milk) are then added at 26-280C and after 16-20 hours fermentation, the curds are stirred and separated from the whey with a Quark centrifuge. In each case a low-fat fromage frais is obtained with about 20 wt.% solids, which is then fatted to 20 wt.% total fats in the dry matter with diluted t20%) cream obtained as follows.

Dairy cream with fat content of 40 wt.% was diluted with cream serum (obtained by removal of fat from another batch of the same cream) to a fat content of 20 wt.%. The diluted cream was heated at 600C with stirring and then homogenized at a pressure of 20 MPa.

In each case the fromage frais is comparable to a fromage frais fatted with a conventional cream to 40% total fats. Similar results are obtained when the cream diluent is not the initially formed liquid cream serum, but the dried and powdered serum plus water.

EXAMPLE 7 A low-fat cheese-making milk is produced by the following method A mixture of equal parts buttermilk and cream serum is heated to 700C and homogenized at 10 MPa. This mixture is diluted with four times the amount of skimmed milk. The cheese-making milk thus obtained is heated to 930C for 5 min, then cooled to the fermentation temperature of 250C and mesophyllic starter culture and rennet (0.5 ml for 100Q cheesemaking milk) are added. The fermentation time amounts to 1620 hours, until a pH of 4.5 is reached.

After stirring the curds and heating to 40-420C, ultrafiltration is effected to a dry weight of 20% in the concentrate.

The fromage frais thus obtained in the low-fat range (about 5 wt.% total fats in the dry matter) is blended with diluted cream as in Example 6 to a fromage frais with 20% fat content.

EXAMPLE 8 Low-fat fromage frais of about 5 wt.% fat in dry matter is made as in Example 7, and blended to about 20 wt. fat content with conventional (neither unhomogenized nor membrane substance-enriched) cream of 35 wt. fat content. The Example was repeated using conventional 45 wt.% content cream.

In both cases the resulting fatted cheese was superior in taste and texture to corresponding fatted cheeses made using low-fat fromage frais from unhomogenized cheese milk (whether the latter is simple skimmed milk or of the buttermilk/serum/skimmed milk composition of Example 7).

In practice of the invention, advantage and improvement in the fatted product can be obtained by homogenising either the low-fat cheese milk (or part thereof, especially a membrane substance enriched part thereof) - which can repartition the membrane substance to result in better final taste - or the fatting cream. The better advantage is given by homogenising the fatting cream (enriched as and if necessary with membrane substance), and best advantage can be gained by homogenising both cheese milk (or part thereof) and fatting cream (preferably enriched with membrane substance).

Claims (6)

CLAIMS:

1. A process for cheese production which comprises providing low-fat cheese milk, converting this cheese milk to low-fat fromage frais, and fatting this fromage frais by blending it with cream, characterised by (i) homogenizing at least part of the cheese milk before its conversion to fromage frais and/or (ii) using fatting cream which is enriched with membrane substance and homogenized.

2. A process according to claim 1 wherein the cheese milk has a fat v/v content of up to 2%.

3. A process according to claim 1 or 2 wherein the or each homengenization is conducted at a pressure of at least 10 Mpa.

4. A process according to any preceding claim wherein at least a membrane substance-enriched portion of the cheese milk is homogenized.

5. A process according to any preceding claim wherein the cheese milk contains at least one of (partially) skimmed milk, buttermilk, butter serum and cream serum.

6. A process according to any preceding claim which employs fatting cream which has been diluted with membrane substance and homogenized.