MODELING FYNBO CHEESE PROTEOLYSIS DURING RIPENING

SIHUFE, G. A.; DE PIANTE VICÍN, D.; RUBIOLO, A. C.

Santa Fe

Congreso; 3rd MERCOSUR CONGRESS ON PROCESS SYSTEMS ENGINEERING 1st MERCOSUR CONGRESS ON CHEMICAL ENGINEERING; 2001

The solute diffusion in a solid is studied to know the rate of mass transfer between solids and liquids in the process of cheese manufacture. The salt diffusion during two stages (salting and ripening), besides time and temperature, is an important factor that affects the rate of protein hydrolysis. Mathematical models to determine the salt intakes in the cheese during salting and the salt distribution before uniform concentration during ripening, were opportunely presented. Solutions, which depend on work conditions in those different stages (brine and cheese concentrations), were used to predict the effect of salt in the cheese casein proteolysis. The average concentration in different zones of the cheese during ripening time was calculated until the error between two consecutive values of mathematical series was less than 10-7. The relationship between as1-casein hydrolysis degree was associated to the salt concentration in Fynbo cheese salted with NaCl or with the mixture NaCl-KCl. The relationship was determined from experimental data obtained by casein electrophoresis cheese samples with different salt concentrations. The software calculates the kinetic parameters in function of the salt, temperature and time during the ripening stage of cheeses. The percentage of casein hydrolysis, according to the cheese zone for different salt concentrations and temperatures were predicted and compared with the experimental results. The proposed model can be useful to estimate the degree of casein degradation in function of the salt concentration for different ripening temperatures.