Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Processes – Separating a starting material into plural different...
Patent
1988-08-10
1990-01-30
Yeung, George
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Processes
Separating a starting material into plural different...
426495, A23C 1905
Patent
active
048972770
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The object of the present invention is the production of a cheese from milk which is subjected to a special filtration.
The production of a cheese is carried out through a number of essential steps well known in the cheese industry. The first step consists in treating the milk to obtain a lactic curd. In the following description and in the claims, one should understand by "milk" all milks of animal or vegetable origin with or without previous pretreatment. Hereinafter "milk" may also be referred to as "raw milk" which includes homogenized and precipitated milks and/or milks wherein the curd has been precipitated from the whey and other water soluble constituents/materials of the milk.
The curd obtained is then subjected to a separation step called draining aimed at separating the precipitated asides which form a coagulum entrapping both the globules of fat and the whey proteins which had precipitated, the mixture being called "cheese", from constituent water with unprecipitated soluble products, in particular products containing soluble nitrogen, lactose, inorganic salts, this mixture being called "whey". This step, which consists in a separation by gravity within the product divided into units of a small volume, is long and expensive and cannot be compatible with the present day food processing industry.
Improvement of this type of production was sought through the use of centrifuges of standard but limited performance.
French Patent No. 2 232 999 proposes an ultra filtration process on an organic semipermeable membrane enabling the recovery of the totality of the proteins by passing a standard coagulum through this organic membrane. Such a process has numerous drawbacks, starting with the organic membranes themselves, as used for carrying the process into effect, because they remain sensitive to physical parameters such as the pressure and the temperature during the course of the process, and also to chemical parameters such as the pH of certain strong acids or alkalis used when cleaning and/or sterilizing. Further, ultrafiltration is a technique which has limitations with regard to a product such as curd, because the organic membranes have an opening or pore diameter which ensures the retention of the totality of the proteins, therefore of the unprecipitated proteins, thus leading to a rapid clogging of the filters, which phenomenon is amplified by the polarization at the level of the organic membrane itself. Further, it is impossible to proceed to the unclogging during the continuous operation of ultrafiltration. Therefore, these periodical uncloggings imply stopping the installation and a full cleaning cycle.
The object of the present invention is to propose a manufacturing process for a cheese and an associated device for carrying the process into effect, the main characteristic of which is that the milk is subjected to a step where the proteins precipitate and the casein coagulates for obtaining a curd, the curd being thereafter subjected to at least one continuous mechanical separation by microfiltration through ceramic walls, this microfiltration step comprising sequential uncloggings without interruption of the microfiltration so as to maintain a very low pressure drop across the membrane.
The sequential unclogging of the process is carried out by reverse permeation under high pressure in a very short time.
Also, in order to limit the pressure drop across the membrane, the permeate outlet is restricted so as to create a back pressure.
This process is further characterized in that the curd is subjected to a thermal treatment prior to the microfiltration, so as to obtain an additional precipitation of the whey proteins.
The process according to the invention is carried out by circulating the product under conditions of laminar flow through the ceramic tubes of the microfiltration cartridge. According to this continuous process, a speed in the range from 1 to 10 meters per second and, preferably from 3 to 5 meters per second, is provided. The microfiltration is carried out stepwise, so as to take a
REFERENCES:
patent: 4341801 (1982-07-01), Weissman
patent: 4751003 (1988-06-01), Raehse et al.
Bennasar Michel
CuQ Jean
Desroches Jean-Marc
Dieu Bernard
Tarodo de la Fuente Blas
Valmont S.A.
Yeung George
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