Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Products per se – or processes of preparing or treating... – Basic ingredient lacteal derived other than butter...
Patent
1990-06-05
1992-12-29
Yeung, George
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Products per se, or processes of preparing or treating...
Basic ingredient lacteal derived other than butter...
53 86, 53512, 99454, 99460, 426512, A23C 1900, B65B 3100
Patent
active
051750147
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to the packaging of natural cheese produced by compressing cheese curd to consolidate the particles of curd into blocks of natural cheese, and is concerned more particularly with a method and apparatus for collating and consolidating blocks of natural cheese into a homogeneous mass of cheese in a container, preparatory to maturing of the cheese.
In the commercial manufacture of hard cheese, the cheese curd is compressed into rectangular blocks of approximately the same size, each block weighing about 40 lb. Each block is enclosed in a separate sealed container and the cheese containers stacked at a maturing station for the appropriate time under the required maturing conditions. The handling of large numbers of cheese containers is however costly in labour and storage facilities.
According to the present invention there is provided a method of collating and consolidating blocks of natural cheese into a homogeneous mass of cheese, comprising filling a container with naked i.e. unwrapped blocks of cheese while the blocks are freshly made and at a temperature within the range 24.degree.-32.degree. Celsius due to the heat applied in processing the milk and curd used to make the cheese, whereby the cheese blocks spread into contact with each other under the overlying weight of the cheese and the cheese blocks fuse together to form a homogeneous mass of cheese in the container. The container is preferably filled with the cheese blocks while they are at a temperature of approximately 30.degree. Celsius.
The present invention has the advantage that the cheese can be matured in large containers each holding for example 640 lbs of cheese formed from sixteen separate 40 lb cheese blocks fused together in accordance with the invention. The use of such large containers can provide economies in the costs for handling and storage, compared to the costs for the same weight of cheese in 40 lb containers.
In the method of the invention, it is essential that the temperature of the cheese blocks does not drop below 24.degree. Celsius during the filling of the container, since below this temperature a skin forms on the exterior of the cheese block and any such skin would prevent homogeneous fusion of adjacent cheese blocks.
In the method of the invention, it is also essential that the container be filled with cheese blocks which are freshly made, that is the cheese blocks must be fed direct from the cheese press to the container without delay. In a method according to the invention for collating and consolidating blocks of cheese formed by a process in which the curd passes through equipment which salts and mellows the curd prior to pressing of the curd into cheese blocks, each cheese block is preferably fed into the container within 60 minutes from the time when the curd used to make the cheese block was discharged from the salting/mellowing equipment, but optimum results are obtained when each cheese block is fed into the container within 30-40minutes of discharge from the salting/mellowing equipment.
Cheese blocks at a temperature within the range 24.degree.-32.degree. Celsius and solid enough to enable the naked blocks to be handled mechanically can be produced within 30-40 minutes of the curd leaving the salting/mellowing equipment by machines of the kind described and illustrated in British Patent Specification No. 1,542,844 which forms cheese blocks by consolidating curd particles under vacuum and then compressing the consolidated curd. Sufficient machines should be provided to produce cheese blocks at a rate sufficient to fill a container before the temperature of the blocks in the container drops below 24.degree. C.
Two collators of different construction for collating blocks of cheese in layers in an open-ended rectangular container in accordance with the method of the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is an isometric projection view of a collator having one container-filling station;
FIG. 2 is a sectional elevation
REFERENCES:
patent: 4049838 (1977-09-01), Krueger et al.
patent: 4744203 (1988-05-01), Brockwell et al.
Brockwell Ian P.
Hancock, deceased Herbert W.
Alfa-Laval Cheese Systems Limited
Yeung George
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