Temperature and Time-Dependent Relaxation of Compressed Cheese Curd Cubes: Effect on Structuring of Pasta-Filata Cheese

摘要

Production of pasta-filata cheese comprises a particular scalding and stretching step to obtain the unique fibrous structure. A simulation of this process on small scale was conducted with cheese curd cubes of 10 × 10 × 10 mm. Stretching was initiated with a texture analyzer and a custom-built geometry in a water bath at 60C. Three parameters were varied: compression rate, pretempering time before compression and duration of compression. The force decline during compression was linearized to receive time independent parameters k1 (y-axis intercept), k2 (slope) and stress relaxation (SR). Further, relaxation time (RT) and Deborah number (De) were calculated. The RT decreased from 2 to 0.6 s with a temperature increase from 40 to 60C. The SR after 20 s of compression increased from 10 to 23% with increasing temperature due to network formation as shown by confocal laser scanning microscopy. Anisotropy increased with decreasing De.