Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Fermentation processes – Of milk or milk product
Reexamination Certificate
1999-05-19
2001-06-26
Hendricks, Keith (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Fermentation processes
Of milk or milk product
C426S041000, C426S043000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06251445
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a new and improved process for preparing enzyme-modified cheese flavorings, and to the enzyme-modified cheese flavorings resulting therefrom. This new process yields greater efficiency in producing enzyme-modified cheese flavorings, particularly from starting materials based on whey proteins.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Enzyme modification of cheeses provides cheeses or cheese products with altered physical properties, such as melting and texture, and enhanced flavors. In general, enzyme modification may be carried out with hydrolytic enzymes that convert many of the components present in cheese. Most commonly, the enzymes used are lipases and/or proteases.
Many processes are known that employ both lipases and proteases. When applied to an already-prepared cheese curd, the product acquires new or enhanced flavors, and may be used either by itself or as a flavorant for other products. U.S. Pat. No. 4,595,594 discloses an intensified cheese flavor product that is prepared by incubating cheese, or cheese curd, with a lipase preferably in combination with a neutral protease. The enzyme(s) are allowed to partially digest the cheese as evidenced by a smooth, easily agitatable mixture, adding cream and incubating until the desired intensified cheese flavor is obtained. The intensity of the cheese flavor is so high that the product must be diluted prior to use. More specifically, Cheddar cheese or fresh curds are treated with the enzymes for about 48 hours.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,752,483 discloses a process for the rapid production of highly flavored cheese ingredients. A cheese curd is combined with water, protease, and lipase, and incubating for a time sufficient to produce a cheese-flavored ingredient. In particular, the process may use cheddar-type or American-type cheese curd less than about 60 days old. American-type cheese curd aged less than 60 days was reduced to particles less than about 2 millimeters. It was combined with aqueous lipase and protease and treated for 5.5 days to provide a highly flavored cheese ingredient. U.S. Pat. No. 5,211,972 discloses compositions including cheese or heavy cream in which the lipids or the proteins are enzymatically modified, and that provide a variety of desired cheese flavor profiles, without using exogenous microorganisms. Heavy cream and/or a hard, ripened cheese are treated with a lipolytic enzyme; hard, ripened cheese is treated with a proteolytic enzyme which is either an acid protease or a neutral protease. The lipolysis of the heavy cream proceeds at 38° C. for 16 hours, and the proteolysis of cheddar cheese likewise proceeds at 38° C. for 16 hours.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,455,051 discloses a flavorant composition having intensified blue cheese character which is obtained by treating blue cheese in an aqueous dispersion and incubated with spores of
Penicillium roquefortii
and with lipase and protease enzymes. The treatment proceeds long enough for the spores and the enzymes to hydrolyze and metabolize the blue cheese. In the examples, lipase and protease treatment, together with the spores, proceeds for about 24 hours.
Normally, enzyme-modified cheese flavorings are made using cheese or cheese curd as the starting material. These materials typically contain caseins as the principal protein and have low amounts of whey proteins, or none at all. It is less economical to make enzyme-modified cheese flavorings from cheese, as opposed to making them from milk or other dairy liquids. However, such dairy liquids contain whey proteins as well as, or in place of caseins. In processes in which milk or a milk product are used, they typically are subjected to a heating for pasteurization before being treated with the enzymes, in order to avoid microbial contamination during the lengthy enzyme treatment. Such heating has been found to be generally detrimental because, among other effects, it induces the whey proteins to aggregate. The aggregated whey proteins are not readily available for the action of an added protease. This difficulty is commonly overcome, when enzyme-modified cheese flavorings are prepared, by allowing incubation of the pasteurized milk or milk product for long periods (e.g., 64 hours or longer).
There remains a need, therefore, for a more efficient method of making enzyme-modified cheese flavorings that treats milk or a dairy liquid rather than treating a cheese curd or an aged, prepared cheese. There further remains a need for a method for melting enzyme-modified cheese flavorings which employs dairy liquids that include whey protein as the starting material and avoids coagulating aggregating the whey protein prior to being treated with the enzyme. In addition, there remains a need for a method of treating milk or a dairy liquid with enzyme for only a short period of time to produce an enzyme-modified cheese flavor, thereby increasing manufacturing efficiency The present invention addresses these needs.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides an improved process for making enzyme-modified cheese flavorings in which treatment with a proteolytic enzyme occurs prior to any heating step, and in which the enzyme treatment is of relatively short duration (i.e., normally less than about 12 hours). The process includes the steps of:
(i) contacting a dairy liquid containing whey protein with a proteolytic enzyme to provide a dairy reaction mixture;
(ii) incubating the dairy reaction mixture at a temperature and for a period of time that are sufficient to partially hydrolyze the proteins;
(iii) pasteurizing the partially hydrolyzed dairy reaction mixture;
(iv) contacting the pasteurized mixture with a composition comprising a lipase and a cheese culture and incubating for a time and at a temperature that are sufficient for cheese flavor to develop; and
(v) treating the fermented mixture with heat sufficient to inactivate the culture, destroy microbial contaminants, and inactivate the enzymes;
thereby providing the enzyme-modified cheese flavorings. The dairy liquid is chosen from among whole milk, reduced fat milk, fat-free milk, skim milk, milk protein concentrate, whey, whey protein isolate, whey protein concentrate, reconstituted milk solids, reconstituted whey solids, cream, and mixtures thereof.
In important embodiments, the proteolytic enzyme is chosen from among a bacterial protease such as the neutral protease from
Bacillus subtilis
, a protease derived from plant origins, a fungal protease, a fungal peptidase, a microbial protease, a microbial peptidases, a mammalian protease, and mixtures thereof. In other important embodiments, the dairy reaction mixture is incubated at a temperature between about 4° C. and about 70° C., and preferably, at a temperature between about 45° C. and about 55° C. In other significant embodiments, the dairy reaction mixture is incubated for a period of time between about 30 minutes and about 12 hours, and preferably, for a period of about 3 hours to about 5 hours. In an additional important embodiment, the composition that contacts the pasteurized mixture further includes a protease and/or a peptidase.
The invention additionally provides an enzyme-modified cheese flavoring containing partially proteolyzed dairy proteins, including partially proteolyzed whey proteins. Importantly, the partially proteolyzed dairy proteins include proteolysis products that have apparent molecular weights, as visualized by SDS-PAGE, of less than about 10 kDa, and even more importantly, less than about 3 kDa. The enzyme-modified cheese flavorings originate from any of a broad range of dairy liquids that contain dairy proteins. In important embodiments, the enzyme-modified cheese flavorings are made by the process of the invention described in the preceding paragraphs.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3535304 (1970-10-01), Muller et al.
patent: 4113895 (1978-09-01), Watt et al.
patent: 4205090 (1980-05-01), Maubois et al.
patent: 4500549 (1985-02-01), Crossman
patent: 4595594 (1986-06-01), Lee et al.
patent: 4675193 (1987-06-01), Boudreaux
patent: 4752483 (1988-06-01), Hagb
Brown Peter H.
Han Xiao-Qing
Silver Richard S.
Fitch Even Tabin & Flannery
Hendricks Keith
Kraft Foods Inc.
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