What Is Processed Cheese?

What is processed cheese? Is this the most popular cheese consumers’ purchase? Processed cheese is a dairy product created from the mixing and heating of several lots of natural cheese, with suitable emulsifying agents, into a homogeneous plastic mass. It may contain fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices. Cheese is processed for uniformity, safety and longer keeping quality and easier merchandizing. Good processed cheese has a smooth and compact body, devoid of fermentative gas holes and has a uniform color. This type of cheese could be sliced with out crumbling or sticking. It melts well and this makes it great for cooking.

Processed cheese may be defined as a modified form of natural cheese prepared with the aid of heat, by comminuting and blending one or more lots of cheese tether. There are a few exceptions, these include, cream cheese and cottage cheese.

As per the PFA rules released in 1976, processed cheese refers to a product obtained by heating cheese with permitted emulsifiers and / or stabilizers, viz. citric acid, sodium citrate, sodium salts of orthophosphoric and polyphosphoric acid, with or with out added condiments and acidifying agents, viz. lactic acid, vinegar, phosphoric acid and citric acid. Processed cheese may contain not more than 4.0% of anhydrous permitted emulsifiers, and / or stabilizers, provide that the content of anhydrous inorganic salts in no case exceeds 3.0% of the finished product. It should not contain more than 47.0% moisture. The milk fat content should not be less than 40.0% of the dry matter. Processed cheese may contain 0.1% sorbic acid, or its sodium, potassium or calcium salts or 0.1% of nisin, either singly or in combination.

In order to produce good quality cheese with a normal texture, cheese blocks from various lots are selected according to age, flavor, body and texture. Usually a trier is used to draw sample from the cheese blocks. From these samples the fat, moisture, salt and acidity are tested. Companies have very strict standards on the quality of their cheese. If the samples do not pass the above tests they are not sent to consumers.

The selected cheese lots are placed on the cleaning table for tempering. The wax coating, if any, adhering on the surface of the cheese blocks is removed along with non edible portions and hard rind. The cheese is ground or cut into small pieces and the weight is found out.

The ground cheese is then transferred into the processing kettle. The cheese is constantly stirred and cooking continued with steam. Emulsifiers such as disodium phosphate or trisodium citrate are commonly used at the recommended rate with the pre-calculated quantity of water. The kettle is heated to temperature, usually ranging between 80-85°C to get a good quality product. The cheese has to be continuously stirred during the heating process. The hot cheese is transferred to the packaging machine and packed into convenient sizes. It is a common practice to store the packaged processed cheese at 20°C overnight before transferring them into the cold store.

What a process making cheese it! Who would have thought it was such a big production. Not matter what texture, quality or taster you prefer, your cheese is produced with quality and care.