Strategic Means to Enhance the Yield of Some Selected Cheese Varieties

Cheese is a ripened, semi-ripened or unripened dairy product prepared by coagulating the milk with rennet enzyme or acid and utilizing starter culture for acid and flavour development. Cheese making involves several steps during which losses of some milk solids is bound to occur at few stages which needs to be monitored and curtailed. The cheese manufacturers are very much concerned about the cheese yield since it reflects on the cheese manufacturing protocol and maximizes profit. The cheese yield is influenced by several controllable as well as uncontrollable factors. Maximizing cheese yield will depend on the recovery of milk fat and casein in the product. Enhancing the yield of soft cheeses is easier than to improve such aspect of hard cheese varieties. Reduced fat cheese making suffers from inherent low yield owing to the initial low total solids in the milk. Thus, laying focus on the yield enhancement of cheese is of utmost significance. Besides conventional techniques to enhance cheese yield, several strategic means are being employed in cheese factory that includes diet manipulation of the cattle, use of genetic engineering, use of additives such as stabilizers, enzymes, high protein food additives inclusive of ultrafiltered retentates and calcium salts, partial homogenization of milk, high pressure processing of milk, cryogenic cooling of cheese curd, etc.