Milk Protein Concentrate Facilitates

Milk protein concentrate facilitates Swiss cheese manufacture, ripening.
Shortages in the availability of milk have lead cheese producers to use milk solids in order to overcome this problem and to increase product yield and plant capacity. The limiting component for using additional solids is lactose.

Milk protein concentrate (MPC) is a low-lactose form of milk solids that could be used in cheese manufacture. Substituting cheese milk with MPC for Swiss cheese manufacture was the focus of research at The Ohio State University. Investigators examined the effects of a reduction in lactose achieved by substituting milk with MPC-70.

The objective of the scientists was to determine if small levels of MPC affected the acid production and cheese ripening characteristics of Swiss cheese. They found that using small amounts of MPC to reduce lactose in cheese milk was useful in Swiss cheese manufacturing and ripening.

Swiss cheese batches were made at the university's dairy pilot plant using 19.5 L of milk. Cheese milk was substituted with 1.5% and 3% MPC-70. Researchers used the same lactic acid-producing starter organisms and three different P. shermanii strains. Cheese milk was standardized to a 0.8-1 total protein-to-fat ratio. Textural properties, pH and free amino acid levels were measured after cold room treatment, after warm room treatment, and at day 60 and day 90.