Quantifying thermally induced flowability of rennet cheese curds

TL;DR

This study investigates how temperature affects the flowability and viscoelastic properties of fully coagulated rennet cheese curds across different pH levels, revealing a critical temperature where curds become significantly more fluid.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the thermal behavior of fully coagulated cheese curds, especially at pH 4.8, which was previously not well understood.

Findings

Curds at pH 4.8 show drastic viscoelastic changes at 43°C.

Viscoelastic moduli decay exponentially with temperature, regardless of pH.

Above 43°C, curds become more fluid than rigid.

Abstract

Conversion of liquid milk to cheese curds is the first stage in cheese manufacture. Changing the rigidity of cheese curds through heating and pH control is an established method for preparing fresh curds, whereas a similar method to prepare fully coagulated curds is largely unknown. This study elucidated the effect of temperature variation on the viscoelastic moduli of fully coagulated curds under different pH conditions. The results showed that rennet curds treated at pH 4.8 exhibited drastic changes in the viscoelasticity at 43 degrees C, above which the degree of fluidity exceeded the degree of rigidity. The viscoelastic moduli exhibited exponential decay as a function of temperature, which was independent of pH.