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.

Types Of Cheeses

There are more than 400 different types of cheeses—with more than 2,000 different names—and several different ways to classify them. Sometimes cheeses are classified according to their ripening methods. Cheeses ripened by microbes added to the curds, such as Gorgonzola and Roquefort, are called interior-ripened cheeses. Cheeses ripened by the action of microbes rubbed on their surfaces, such as Brie and Camembert, are called surface-ripened cheeses.

Cheeses are often grouped by their moisture content into fresh, soft, semisoft, hard, and very hard cheeses. Many of these classifications overlap because the texture of a cheese changes as it ages. Fresh cheeses, such as cottage cheese, are the soft, moist curds that have been cut and drained of their whey but never cooked or ripened. Cottage cheese is simply drained, mixed with cream or milk, and seasoned. However, some fresh cheeses, such as cream cheese and ricotta, are lightly pressed or molded to improve their shape and consistency.

Soft cheeses, such as Brie and Camembert, have a creamy consistency with a cardboard-like rind and are usually surface-ripened. Semisoft cheeses have a smooth texture and are usually uncooked. The interior-ripened blue-veined cheeses—such as Blue cheese, Roquefort, and Gorgonzola—fall under the semisoft category. Washed-rind cheeses, or cheeses that are rubbed with brine-soaked cloths during ripening, are also considered semisoft cheeses. Well known semisoft, washed-rind cheeses include Muenster and Limburger.