Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Packaged or wrapped product – Packaged product is lacteal derived
Reexamination Certificate
2001-09-10
2003-01-28
Tarazano, D. Lawrence (Department: 1773)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Packaged or wrapped product
Packaged product is lacteal derived
C426S036000, C428S035400, C428S526000, C428S475800
Reexamination Certificate
active
06511688
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to packaged respiring foodstuffs and improvements in the art of packaging foodstuffs which produce gas, particularly CO
2
respiring foodstuffs, especially cheeses such as for example emmental, gouda and edam.
Many hundreds of different kinds of cheese are made today. The cheese making art is very old with evidence of cheese making as far back as 2300 B.C. Cheese is a cultured milk product i.e. typically a starter culture of bacteria which produce lactic acid as added to milk along with an enzyme called “rennin”. Rennin typically comes from rennet from the stomach of a calf or lamb, but may be derived from either animal or plant sources. The acid produced by the bacteria alters the pH of the milk to an acidity which causes a milk protein termed “casein” to coagulate thereby forming curds. Rennin is an enzyme which facilitates curd formation. Typically, both acid produced by bacteria and rennin are used together to form cheese curds and whey. Curds aggregate holding fat and whey in a network of protein. In cheese making this curd formation is usually followed by pouring off the whey and concentration of the curds. To remove additional whey, curds may be cut, pressed, cooked and/or salted to produce what is termed “green” or unripened cheese. Here “green” refers to the youth or lack of aging of the cheese at this point in manufacture. The green cheese may then be aged or ripened for anywhere from a few days to up to four years or more depending upon the cheese variety. This ripening may continue even after packaging, but is generally slowed by holding cheese at lower refrigeration temperatures.
The above description relates to generally known processes for making natural cheeses. Also known are “processed” cheeses which are ground natural cheeses which typically mix unripened and ripened cheeses with other ingredients such as added milk and stabilizers followed by pasteurization and usually packaging while hot.
In forming natural cheeses, specific molds or bacteria may be added just prior to or during ripening to produce particular varieties of cheese having different characteristics such as flavors, aromas, textures and appearance.
For example, blue cheeses are made by inserting a blue green mold,
Penicillium roquefort
into the interior of the cheese. There are also surface ripened cheeses such as brie and camembert which have an exterior surface coat of a white mold
Penicillium camembert.
Cheeses such as brick and limburger are ripened by bacteria which are coated on the surface of the cheese. The original starter culture bacteria also may provide distinctive characteristics for ripening. Bacteria added in the starter culture is used for ripening in production of hard and semi-hard cheeses such as Parmesan, Cheddar and Gouda. Swiss type cheeses may also be ripened using the original starter culture, but typically additional bacteria such as Propionibacter Shermanii is added to form the “eyes” of the cheese. In emmental or swiss-type cheeses these “eyes” are formed as gas pockets of carbon dioxide (CO
2
) which is given off in large amounts by the bacteria which is nourished by lactic acid (which is produced by other bacteria in the starter culture). On grading of swiss-type cheese, cheese graders (which may be licensed by various governmental entities) consider the amount, size and development of eyes as well as the cheese appearance including uniformity of firmness, and its flavor and aroma, shape, freedom from mold, color, size and saltiness.
After ripening, or after molding and pressing (for starter culture ripened varieties of cheeses), cheeses are coated or packaged to prevent physical damage, moisture loss and spoilage (eg. by mite infestation or growth of undesirable molds or bacteria). Many packaging materials and preventive coatings are in use for contact with cheeses including: fat, cloth, wax, metal foils and plastic films and sheets. Waxes and resins in particular have been used for many years to coat dry, hard or semi-hard cheeses such as cheddar, cheshire, gouda, edam and danbo by dipping the cheese into melted wax. Cheese has also been packaged into polymer film under conditions which allow ripening of the cheese in the package.
In discussing plastic film packaging, various polymer acronyms are used herein and they are listed below. Also, in referring to blends of polymers a colon (:) will be used to indicate that the components to the left and right of the colon are blended. In referring to film structure, a slash “/” will be used to indicate that components to the left and right of the slash are in different layers and the relative position of components in layers may be so indicated by use of the slash to indicate film layer boundaries. Acronyms commonly employed herein include:
PE—Polyethylene (an ethylene homopolymer and/or copolymer of a major portion of ethylene with one or more &agr;-olefins)
EVA—Copolymer of ethylene with vinyl acetate
PVDC—Polyvinylidene chloride (also includes copolymers of vinylidene chloride, especially with vinyl chloride)
EVOH—A saponified or hydrolyzed copolymer of ethylene and vinyl acetate
EAA—Copolymer of ethylene with acrylic acid
Various published patent documents disclose different types of cheese packages, packaging films and processes for packaging.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,925,443 (Gere) discloses flexible wrappers and a process for packaging uncured cheese wherein the cheese ripens or cures in the package. This patent states that “The package must be of moisture-proof and impervious material, and it must be so sealed as to exclude air, but at the same time, it must provide for the escape of excess carbon dioxide evolved in the course of fermentation”. Preferred wrappers include “cellulose viscose” or “cellulose acetate” which may subsequently be coated with paraffin. Disadvantageously, manufacture of these films is complex, time consuming and expensive. Also, it is difficult to adjust CO
2
permeabilities for use on different cheeses.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,494,636 (Stine) discloses a method of making emmental (swiss) cheese which comprises applying a coat of extensible, flexible, fluid proof sealing material to the exterior surface of the uncured cheese to seal the surface prior to eye development followed by curing under controlled pressure in an expandable mold. Suitable sealing materials are said to be wax, or a wrap of an elastic-flexible material such as cellophane, the inner surface of which may be coated with a flexible and elastic wax. The packaging materials disclosed here have the same disadvantages as described above for those materials disclosed in the Gere patent.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,871,126 (Smith et al.) discloses a method for manufacturing emmental type cheese which is also known as Swiss cheese. This patent refers to use of thermoplastic film as a moisture proof, fluid-proof material for wrapping the cheese after the brine step for curing in molds. A disadvantage of this disclosed film is that the moisture proof wrapper does not have an adjustable CO
2
permeability.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,813,028 (Jackson, Jr.) discloses processes for producing Cheddar cheese. In one process green cheddar curd is extruded into preformed wrappers which may be made of cellulose based films such as cellophane, rubber chloride based films or polyvinylidene chloride based films such as saran. It is preferred that the films have the following characteristics:
(1) substantially moisture proof i.e. having relatively low moisture vapor transmission rate to prevent drying out
(2) slightly permeable to carbon dioxide to permit normal curing
(3) cling or stick to cheese to prevent mold growth
(4) slightly extensible to improve cling between wrapper & cheese by overfilling
(5) transparent or translucent to improve appearance.
The disclosed films suffer from disadvantageously, controlling CO
2
permeability by slightly opening the ends of the package. This removes the physical, moisture and oxygen barrier at those openings thereby subjecting the cheese to the deleterious effects of excessive oxyg
Edwards David Nicholas
Vicik Stephen James
Curwood Inc.
Richeson Cedric M.
Tarazano D. Lawrence
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