Characteristics of imitation Mozzarella cheese manufactured without emulsifying salts using a combination of culture-based acid curd and micellar casein concentrate

Ahmed R A Hammam; Lloyd E Metzger

doi:10.1002/fsn3.3424

Characteristics of imitation Mozzarella cheese manufactured without emulsifying salts using a combination of culture-based acid curd and micellar casein concentrate

Food Sci Nutr. 2023 May 15;11(8):4616-4624. doi: 10.1002/fsn3.3424. eCollection 2023 Aug.

Authors

Ahmed R A Hammam^{1

2}, Lloyd E Metzger¹

Affiliations

¹ Dairy and Food Science Department South Dakota State University Brookings South Dakota USA.
² Dairy Science Department, Faculty of Agriculture Assiut University Assiut Egypt.

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to develop a process to produce acid curd from micellar casein concentrate (MCC) using starter cultures and to manufacture imitation Mozzarella cheese (IMC) using a combination of acid curd and MCC that would confer emulsification ability to the caseins without the use of emulsifying salts (ES). The formulations were targeted to produce IMC with 49.0% moisture, 20.0% fat, 18.0% protein, and 1.5% salt. In the IMC formulation made without ES (FR-2:1), the acid curd was blended with MCC so that the formula contained a 2:1 ratio of protein from acid curd relative to MCC. IMC with ES was also produced as a control. The melt and stretch characteristics of IMC made from FR-2:1 were similar to those of control IMC. We conclude that IMC can be made without ES using a 2:1 ratio of protein from acid curd relative to MCC.

Keywords: acid curd; functional characteristics; imitation Mozzarella cheese; melting properties; micellar casein concentrate.