Take you to a simple understanding of processed cheese

The definition for processed cheese and what is allowed in processed cheese can be found in the food

Codex and can vary from county to county .In general processed cheese is a mixture of one or more

Kinds of natural cheese to which other ingredients such as dairy proteins,butter,cream, vegetable fats,emulsifying salts, water other food stuffs have been added. This mixture is pasteurized or sterilized and transformed in machines by mechanical actions into a homogenious mass and packed in different shapes.

Types of processed cheese

Generally processed cheese products can be divided into four bigger groups:

1. Spreadable processed cheese and processed cheese preparations

2. Processed cheese slices, IWS (individually wrapped slices) and SOS (slice on slice) for catering

3. Block processed cheese, in slices, as blocks or as grated cheese for pizza production

4. Imitation processed cheese (made from powders, water, oil/fat, salts)

Processing technologies

Processed cheese is made from natural cheese and other ingredients, that means a processed cheese producer does not necessarily need milk in order to start a processed cheese production. He can buy cheese from the world market as well as the other necessary ingredients and start a production.

The processing technology is divided into pasteurization up to 110°C and sterilization up to 142°C and between batch processing and continuous processing or a combination of both.The batch processing machines are operated with pasteurization temperatures between 72°C (cooking mixer for pizza processed cheese) and maximum 110°C. Sterilization in a batch processing machine is impossible - the product would be spoiled due to high temperature and long heating respectively cooling times. The pasteurization temperature is not high enough to inactivate the spores of the sporeforming bacteria type clostridium which comes from the milk. Therefore the pasteurized product should stay in the cooling chain during distribution and consumption. The shelf life is between 3-6 months. The batch processing machines are usually equipped with knives (except cooking mixers) and other agitators inside their processing vessel which allow them to start from bigger chunks of cheese and butter and to form - with the help of steam injection and under vacuum - a homogeneous processed cheese product.

For a longer shelf life and a higher product safety the UHT process is recommended. It is usually split up into two heating steps, the first pre-heating step starts from room temperature to 85°C (which can also be done in a batch cooker) and the second heating step reaches from 85°C to 142°C. After a certain temperature holding time - usually 140-142°C, 4-12 seconds, the hot cheese is cooled down immediately and continuously in a vacuum flash tank. After the UHT process it is necessary to increase the viscosity in a creaming tank - at least for spreadable processed cheese products. By stirring the cheese with an agitator in a creaming tank the viscosity of the cheese is increased to the desired filling viscosity - 2.000-3.000 cps.

The ideal continuous UHT system allows a pre-mixing with the possibility of water content standardization and fat content correction. To achieve this kind of correction possibility it is necessary to get the cold premix analyzed either in a laboratory or on-line with an NIR (Near-Infra-Red) system. Based on the received results water and butter of fat can be added.