Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Fermentation processes – Of milk or milk product
Reexamination Certificate
1999-04-27
2002-07-09
Hendricks, Keith (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Fermentation processes
Of milk or milk product
C426S041000, C426S042000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06416796
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to cheese compositions containing enzymatically modified whey protein digestion products. The resulting compositions have advantageous flavoring and more optimal utilization of dairy components in the manufacture of cheese compositions.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Cheese compositions are prepared from dairy liquids by processes that include treating the liquid with a coagulating or clotting agent. The coagulating agent may be a curding enzyme, an acid, or a suitable bacterial culture, or it may include such a culture. The coagulum or curd that results generally incorporates transformed casein, fats including natural butter fat, and flavorings that arise especially when a bacterial culture is used. The curd may be separated from the liquid whey, which contains soluble proteins not affected by the coagulation and that therefore are not incorporated into the coagulum. Whey is thus a byproduct of manufacturing and commercial processes that produce food products such as cheeses. Whey contains soluble substances such as lactose, and proteins such as &bgr;-lactoglobulin, &agr;-lactalbumin, bovine serum albumin, immunological proteins and trace amounts of free caseins. Since large quantities of whey are available from the side streams of the food producing processes mentioned above, it would be desirable to more fully optimize utilization of the components of whey in the manufacture of dairy products in order to increase the utilization of the raw milk starting material and thereby enhance overall efficiency. The inability of whey proteins to be retained in the coagulum is an important factor contributing to a lack of efficiency in the conventional production of cheese curds, and to a reduction in overall yield relating to the incorporation of all the protein solids that are present in the starting dairy liquids into resulting cheese curds. These problems have been recognized for many decades.
Several methods have been proposed with the objective of recovering whey proteins in cheese products. For example, whey proteins have been concentrated or dried from whey, and then recombined with cheese (see Kosikowski, Cheese and Fermented Foods, 2nd ed., Edwards Brothers, Inc., Ann Arbor, Mich., 1977, pp. 451-458). Unfortunately, in such procedures the recovered whey constituents do not have the appropriate physical and chemical properties conducive to making natural cheeses or process cheeses. An alternative approach has been to coprecipitate whey proteins with casein, as disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,535,304. Again, however, the final product of this process lacks the proper attributes for making processed and/or imitation cheeses.
A further attempt to incorporate whey proteins into cheese products has employed ultrafiltration of milk to concentrate components, such as casein, whey protein, and butterfat, that do not permeate the ultrafiltration membrane. When such a composition is coagulated by contact with an acid or rennet, a curd forms. This curd, however, loses considerable quantities of the whey protein during compaction. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,205,090 provides a process wherein the milk is concentrated to about one-fifth of its original volume. The resulting curd may be processed to provide soft cheeses such as Camembert or Roblechon, but not hard cheeses such as cheddar, Colby, and similar cheeses.
Ernstrom et al. (J. Dairy Science 63:2298-234 (1980)) provide a process in which milk is concentrated to about 20% of the original volume by ultrafiltration and evaporation; the lactose content are modulated by diafiltration. The resulting composition is then inoculated with a cheese starter, which also ferments the remaining lactose, and forms a cheese base. The cheese base can be used to replace natural cheese components of process cheese. This process does not employ any renneting agent or step to prepare a cheese curd.
There are difficulties associated with adding whey proteins in processes such as the manufacture of cheeses. For example, incorporation of whey protein into cheeses is associated with a deterioration in the taste and mouthfeel of the product, and furthermore tends to interfere with curding and subsequent processing of the product. This may occur, for example, if the whey protein is treated by heat denaturation, or by concentration prior to curding, or by complexation with destabilizing compounds. For example, Harper ei al. (J. Dairy Sci. 72:333-341 (1989)) discuss the art relating to such processes designed to increase product yield. Ultrafiltration of milk, for example, may concentrate all the macromolecular components entering into a cheese-making process. Nevertheless, although the yield is increased by virtue of the incorporation of whey protein, its presence could be responsible for a typical maturation in cheese processing, characterized by a lack of proteolysis and flavor development. Furthermore, according to Harper et al., the whey protein may be carried along in subsequent steps in cheese-making processes apparently undigested, if present in the native state, or it may be hydrolyzed to give products with unusual and often unpleasant flavors and textures if denatured by heat, shear, or foaming. According to Harper et al., such whey proteins, whether native or denatured, may alter the curding of casein proteins by dilution, or by specifically blocking the substrate from the enzymes, or by interfering with diffusion of the enzymes to the casein substrates. Harper et al. report decreased proteolysis of casein in the presence of whey protein by the action of chymosin. They also demonstrated that increased viscosity was not responsible for the observed effect.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,379,170 discloses a process for the manufacture of cheese and cheese-like products made by combining a non-hydrolyzed protein-fat-salt composition with hydrolyzed milk protein. The hydrolyzed milk protein composition is obtained by treating milk protein with a protease to hydrolyze the milk protein and to develop cheese flavor components. Additionally this portion, or a different portion of an edible protein, may be treated with a fermenting organism to develop cheese-like flavors. A non-hydrolyzed milk protein composition is obtained by removing water and fermentable sugars from milk. The non-hydrolyzed milk protein composition and the hydrolyzed milk protein composition are first mixed. After adding a culture and a coagulant to cause setting, the set mixture is broken to provide curd and whey. The curd is cooked and the whey is separated. In working examples, the protease employed is Rhozyme P-11™ (Rohm and Haas); the culture is Micrococcus sp. or
Propionibacteria
; and the coagulant is generally rennet.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,691,165 discloses a method of producing a whey protein hydrolyzate. The patent states that all prior art methods for producing a whey protein hydrolyzate yield products with an unacceptable taste. The method in U.S. Pat. No. 5,691,165 includes (1) forming a whey protein slurry of about 7-20%, (2) heating to above 60° C., preferably between 70° C. and 90° C., and adjusting the pH to about 8, (3) using at least two different proteases to hydrolyze the slurry to a degree of hydrolysis of between 15 and 35%, and (4) ultrafiltering the hydrolyzate to obtain whey protein hydrolyzate in the permeate. The proteases may preferably be obtained from
Bacillus licheniformis
(Alcalase™, identified in U.S. Pat. No. 5,523,237 (see below) as SP 446), and from
B. subtilis
(Neutrase™). In the examples, the resulting peptides are generally 3-5 residues in length.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,707,364 discloses a composition and process for accelerating the aging of cheese. Partially disrupted
Lactobacillus. casei
or
L. lactis
preserved by freeze drying; and dried lipase is used to treat milk or dairy compositions in cheese-making. These substances, and in certain embodiments, a protease from a microorganism such as
B. amyloliquefaciens, B. subtilis
, or
Aspergillus oryzae
, are added to the milk before the addition of the coagulant, o
Han Xiao-Qing
Spradlin Joseph E.
Fitch Even Tabin & Flannery
Hendricks Keith
Kraft Foods Inc.
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