Impact of milk preacidification with CO2 on cheddar cheese composition and yield

Abstract

Preacidification of milk for cheese making may have a beneficial impact on increasing proteolysis during cheese aging. Unlike other acids, CO2 can easily be removed from whey. The objectives of this work were to determine the effect of milk preacidification on Cheddar cheese composition, the recovery of individual milk components, and yield. Carbon dioxide was injected inline after the cooling section of the pasteurizer. Cheeses with and without added CO2 were made simultaneously from the same batch of milk. This procedure was replicated 3 times. Carbon dioxide in the cheese milk was about 1600 ppm, which resulted in a milk pH of about 5.9 at 31°C. The starter culture and coagulant addition rates were the same for both the CO2 treatment and the control. The whey pH at draining of the CO2 treatment was lower than the control. Total make time was shorter for the CO2 treatment compared with the control. Cheese manufactured from milk acidified with CO2 retained less of the total calcium and fat than the control cheese. The higher fat loss was primarily in the whey at draining. Preacidification with CO2 did not alter the crude protein recovery in the cheese. The CO2 treatment resulted in a higher added salt recovery in the cheese and produced a cheese that contained too much salt. Considering the higher added salt retention, the salt application rate could be lowered to achieve a typical cheese salt content. Cheese yield efficiency of the CO2 treated milk was 4.4% lower than the control due to fat loss. Future work will focus on modifying the make procedure to achieve a normal fat loss into the whey when CO2 is added to milk.