Testing a cost-affordable microfiltration method to prevent eye formation in cheeses

GIMÉNEZ, PAULA; BERGAMINI, CARINA; PERALTA, GUILLERMO; GEORGE, GUILLERMO ANDRÉS; PEROTTI, MARIA CRISTINA; HYNES, ERICA RUT

JOURNAL OF FOOD PROCESS ENGINEERING

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2023

0145-8876

The naturally occurring microparticles in the cheesemilk are essential for the eye formationin cheeses because they act as eye nuclei. So, their elimination could be a strategy to avoid the eye formation in cheese varieties in which the eyes are considered a defect. The objective of this work was to test the efficiency of a costaffordable method, microfiltration through filter bag with 1 μm pore size, for eliminating microparticles from the cheesemilk and so to prevent the undesirable eye formation.For that, cheesemilk was microfiltrated and used to make experimental and control Swiss-type cheeses with and without the addition of hay microparticles, respectively. These microparticles were added to act as eye nuclei and to promote the eye formation in experimental cheeses, while the absence of microparticles in control cheeses should avoid the eye development. Cheeses were ripened (60 days) in adequate successive steps to allow the gas production by the propionic bacteria included in the starter. Gross composition, pH, and content of carbohydrates and organic acids including propionate were the same in both treatments indicating that similar amounts of CO2 were produced. Despite microfiltration of the milk, control cheeses developed a considerable number of eyes, as well as experimental cheeses, although the eye volume was higher in the last ones. So, the microfiltration with a filter bag was not efficient to prevent eye formation, probably because it did not eliminate all the native nuclei, and therefore is not suitable to our objective.