Novel Processing Technology for Manufacturing Low- fat Mozzarella-type Cheese with Superior Performance in Ready Meals F.Başak Coşkun 1, H.Bysell 2, J.W.Benjamins 2, E.M.Düsterhöft 3, A.Fureby 2, M.Serrano 4, A.Toward 5, J.Clarke 6 1 Union of Beef, Dairy, Food Industrialists and Producers of Turkey, Ankara, Turkey 2 SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden, Stockholm, Sweden 3 NIZO Food Research, Ede, The Netherlands 4 CSK Food Enrichment, The Netherlands 5 Joseph Heler Cheese, United Kingdom 6 UK Health and Environmental Research Institute, United Kingdom INTRODUCTION The European food industry is under increasing pressure to improve the nutritional quality of their foods not least in the area of saturated fat and trans fat reduction. The CheeseCoat Project, funded by the EU, started work in 2011 with the aim of developing a Mozzarella-type cheese with less than 3% fat marking a significant improvement on the varieties that are currently available. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no PROJECT PROGRESS The functionality of heated, low fat Mozzarella type cheese can be improved by a number of key strategies including increased moisture content, reduction of calcium content and enhanced proteolysis. This can be achieved by smart selection of starter and/or adjunct cultures as well as optimized processing conditions for development. In addition the functionality of the melted cheese can be further improved by application of a fat based coating. STARTER CULTURES Researchers at NIZO food research (Ede The Netherlands) have screened > 100 different microbial strains of lactic acid bacteria and their combinations. They used NIZO’s unique MicroCheese Model system, which was adapted for mozzarella-type processing. The cultures were compared against several different biochemical and functional criteria and eight strains were selected for up-scaling and pilot production. The results showed that starters had good functionality, high viable counts and acceptable activity values. WORK CONDUCTED TO DATE OIL COATING Results from testing to date have demonstrated that the most promising solution for an oil coating will be a complex emulsion containing oil and dairy-based ingredients. The emulsion based coating shows superior performance in melting tests compared to simple oil or fat coatings, while adding less fat to the product. The special processing of the emulsion ensures good shelf stability. THE RESULTS OBTAINED IN CHEESECOAT SO FAR A processing protocol have been established that allowed to produce low fat, low moisture mozzarella cheese with the desired composition (2-3% fat content and moisture to protein ratio similar to full fat mozzarella). The cheeses developed in this project had clearly superior characteristics compared to the low fat prototype cheeses (3% or 10% fat) which were available at the start of the project. Extended ripening times are not required for the cheese developed in CheeseCoat. - The properties of the low fat cheese could be further tailored in either direction (firming, less spreading and higher stretch forces, or softening, more spreading and lower stretch forces) by readily implementable technological measures. The functionality of the low fat cheese could also be modified by applying starter and/or adjunct cultures which had been selected from MicroCheese Mozzarella Model trials based on parameters such as proteolytic capacity. The melting behavior of low fat Mozzarella-type cheese can be significantly improved by adding a fat-based coating and different compositions of the coating have a strong impact on the performance. A functional coating based on only dairy-derived ingredients with a shelf-life of at least 2 months has been developed A spray-coating system for smart application of the coating on shredded cheese in food industry have been developed. PRODUCTION OF CHEESE During different stages of the project, selected cultures were processed into dairy ingredients and used for the production of nearly one ton of 3% cheese. Concurrently adjustments were made for optimization of the process and culture combinations to secure optimal quality in the product. Prototypes produced in November 2013 showed encouraging results with significant improvement in moisture content and texture over conventional low-fat cheese. PARTNERS CONTACT The CheeseCoat Project aims to product a final solution by January 2015 and will be disseminating the results through a wide range of activities. In the meantime if you would like to find out further information or to be kept updated with progress please visit MicroCheese System (NIZO food research) SPRAY COATING MACHINE The consortium has developed a fully programmable and automatic spraying machine that delivers a measured dose of emulsion as the grated cheese flows along a conveyor belt. The machine has been built to food grade specifications and fully tested in an industrial setting.