Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Processes – Packaging or treatment of packaged product
Patent
1996-11-08
1998-10-06
Cano, Milton
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Processes
Packaging or treatment of packaged product
426 89, 426 90, 426130, 426127, 426289, 426302, 426582, 426650, 426410, A23C 1916
Patent
active
058173587
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a method of salting cheese.
TECHNICAL BACKGROUND
The manufacture of cheese products usually employs milk or a milk product in a non-concentrated or a concentrated state as starting material. The most essential feature of the manufacture of cheese is an acidifying and/or renneting process whereby the pH-value of the cheese mass is lowered to a value usually below 5.3 to 5.4 by means of either acid generating starter microorganisms or another acidifying starter agent in combination with a simultaneous use of rennet. As a result, the enzymic effect of the rennet ensures the desired formation of cheese by a coagulation of the casein of the milk product.
The ready-made cheese must usually contain salt out of consideration for taste, texture, and shelf life. The microorganisms used by the manufacture of cheese usually necessitate an addition of salt after the finished acidifying process because high concentrations of salt may impede such microorganisms and result in a deteriorated cheese quality. The cheese is usually of a semi-solid or solid texture due to the shaping thereof for instance in a cheese press, and accordingly the succeeding addition of salt can be both difficult and time-consuming.
By the conventional salting of cheese the cheese is usually placed in a brine after a suitable cooling period of typically 12 hours. The brine is often a saturated brine containing approximately 25% by weight of salt (mainly sodium chloride). In order to ensure that the desired salt content, usually 1 to 1.5% by weight of salt, is absorbed in the cheese, said cheese must stay in the brine for approximately 24 hours.
Salting in brine (brining) is a very space-requiring process due to the necessary stay period. To this must be added the costs involved in the equipment and the handling. In order to illustrate the complex structure of a brining plant, reference is made to the cheese brining system described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,815,368 (Nelles). Such a system is quite expensive and room-requiring per se. In addition, a major draw-back is found in the brining process developing a strong salt fog which is unpleasant to work in and which has a highly corrosive effect on the equipment. The brine causes bacteriological problems, the reason why the entire brining plant must be subjected to a cleaning and the brine must be pasteurized or microfiltered at regular intervals.
Attempts have been made at performing the cheese salting by way of injection through needle-shaped pipes inserted in the cheese mass. This method turned out, however, to be unsuited because the structure of the cheese is destroyed by the insertion.
Another attempt at avoiding the complicated brining has been described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,798,340 (Reinbold et al.). According to this publication, porous absorbing materials, such as cellulose sponges, are applied to at least two of the sides of a cheese block inside a closed container, a salt solution being provided in said cellulose sponges. In the closed container, the salt from the sponge can diffuse into the cheese so as to salt said cheese. The method suggested by Reinbold is, however, encumbered with the major draw-back that the introduction of a porous sponge requires taking of extensive precautionary measures in order to avoid a deterioration or destroying of the cheese due to microbiological pollution. In addition, the used porous sponge presents a foreign body which must be removed and disposed of upon use, preferably in an environmentally acceptable manner.
It is a well-known fact that when a highly concentrated salt-containing material is applied to the surface of cheese, said cheese is softened by way of osmosis in the area immediately surrounding the salt applied with the result that the structure and texture of the ready-made cheese product is deteriorated or destroyed.
The latter knowledge is confirmed by the disclosure of the above U.S. Pat. No. 3,798,340 (Reinbold et al.), because the solution suggested by Reinbold implies that some impeding effect
REFERENCES:
patent: 3798340 (1974-03-01), Reinbold et al.
patent: 4300446 (1981-11-01), Hazen
patent: 4448116 (1984-05-01), Muzzarelli
patent: 4815368 (1989-03-01), Nelles
Busk Per
Teilg.ang.rd Jarl
APV Pasilac A/S
Cano Milton
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