Dairy products and milk-based food ingredients - Natural Food Additives, Ingredients and Flavourings - page 426

Salt as an additive is applied to cheese curd to arrest the development of the
starter bacteria. This may be achieved by mixing salt into milled curd, as with
cheddar manufacture, or by placing cheese in brine baths (saturated salt solution)
as is common with camembert, or by dry salting (rubbing with salt) as with
emmental. The removal of whey and the shaping of curd gives an intermediate
product with a reduced water activity that can be handled and matured.
Many hard cheeses are mechanically pressed to cause the curd particles to bind
together and shape the cheese, and to express salt whey. Cheeses that have been
mechanically pressed may be vacuum packed in polyethylene bags, bound for
example with muslin cheese cloth, or waxed to exclude air which would allow mould
growth, spoilage and moisture loss during maturation. Some may be left 'uncoated'
as with gruyere, or they may be dry salted to form a hard rind which excludes air
from the curd and gives shape to the fi nished product. Hard cheeses may be matured
over many months or even years, during which time proteolytic and lipolytic enzymes
produced by the cheese starter organisms, and particularly adventitious organisms
such as Lactobacilli, develop and modify cheese texture, fl avour and aroma.
In contrast to hard cheeses, mould-ripened cheeses are matured in a matter of
days or weeks. Organisms such as Geotrichum candidum are used in the production
of white mould-ripened cheeses, whereas Penicillium roqueforti is used in the
manufacture of cheeses such as stilton, roquefort and Danish blue. Depending on
the product, in the production of mould-ripened cheeses mould spores are added at
different points in the process. In camembert production the mould spores may be
added to the cheesemilk or, alternatively, mould spores may be applied to the
surface of shaped cheeses by dipping in a water bath containing a suspension of
spores, or by spraying spores onto the cheese surface. In the manufacture of stilton
the blue mould spores are mixed into drained curd before the curd is transferred to
hoops to be pressed under its own weight over seven days. Development of the
white mould coat on the surface of camembert is promoted by transfer of the shaped
cheese to a maturation store running at the required temperature and relative
humidity (RH) (see Table 17.6). In contrast, stilton is transferred to a cheese store at
13-15°C and 85-90% RH to be pierced with stainless steel wires at around 6-7
weeks (Banks 1998), thereby allowing oxygen into the cheese to promote blue
mould growth. The moulds used in mould-ripened cheese production are
biochemically very active, producing large quantities of proteolytic and lipolytic
enzymes relative to the starter and adventitious bacteria which contribute to cheese
ripening. The moulds usually have a rapid and obvious effect on texture, fl avour and
aroma development, as evidenced by the rate at which chalky camembert becomes
creamy and then liquefi es with the development of ammoniacal compounds.
Cheeses such as camembert are consumed as retail products in their own right.
Many cheeses are, however, also used as ingredients in food manufacture. Cheeses
as industrial ingredients range from quark and its variant, thermoquark or bakers'
cheese, used in for example cheesecakes, to cheddar and mozzarella used for
example as pizza toppings. Cheeses as ingredients provide characteristic cheese
fl avours including lactic acid notes, characteristic aromas, texture, viscosity,
succulence and browning.

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