A Novel Sensor to Monitor Colour Changes during Cheese Curd Syneresis in a Vat

摘要

Syneresis is a critical processing step in cheese manufacture, follows the cutting of milk coagulum into cubes and is promoted by stirring. During the syneresis phase shrinkage of the casein micelle network induces whey expulsion from the curd grains.The rate and extent of syneresis plays a fundamental role in determining the moisture, mineral and lactose content and texture of drained curd and hence that of the final cheese. The objective of this study was to investigate a novel large field of viewlight backscatter sensor for monitoring syneresis. The sensor probe was submerged in the stirred curd and whey mixture during syneresis. Colour measurements were determined at different levels of gel cutting mode and curd agitation speed, to ensure a wide range of syneresis kinetics. Hunter L, a and b values decreased logarithmically with time over syneresis by 23, 25 and 23 %, respectively. From these L, a, and b parameters a color change metric was derived. The results obtained show that the large field of view sensor has potential to monitor syneresis using colour and therefore allow improved control of the curd moisture content before ripening, which would decrease the production of down-graded cheese.