Effect of the salting process on the mass transfer kinetics of manchego-type cheese

Abstract

Mass transfer kinetics for Manchego cheese was determined and compared by applying three salting treatments: conventional immersion, vacuum immersion, and pulsed vacuum immersion. Cylindrical samples of 0.5 kg were manufactured, and the mass transfer kinetics was measured during 24 hours of brining by determining changes of moisture content, sodium chloride concentration, and water activity. Twelve different zones were analyzed at 2, 6, 12, and 24 hours, in which salt uptake was well fitted by a mass transfer equation (R ≥ 0.90) and by Peleg's approach (R ≥ 0.96) for the three treatments. An average velocity factor (obtained from the kinetics constants of Peleg's equation) for each treatment, was defined and evaluated for salt gain of the twelve zones. An overall process parameter was computed from the average velocities, not showing significant difference among the immersion treatments.