NOVEL TECHNIQUES TO IMPROVE THE YIELD OF SOME SELECTED CHEESE VARIETIES – A REVIEW

Cheese making entails several steps in which losses of milk solids is imperative at few stages. The cheese manufacturers are very much concerned about the product yield since it reflects on the cheese manufacturing protocol and maximizes profit. Cheese yield is affected by several controllable as well as uncontrollable factors. The cheese yield is highly dependent on recovery of casein and fat in the product. Soft cheeses are more amenable to yield enhancement than hard cheese varieties. Reduced fat cheese making suffers from inherent low yield owing to the initial low total solids in the raw material. Hence, yield enhancement in this area is of utmost significance. Besides conventional techniques to enhance cheese yield, several novel techniques are available that includes use of genetic engineering, diet manipulation of the cattle, use of additives like stabilizers, enzymes, high protein food additives, partial homogenization of milk, high pressure processing of milk, membrane processing of milk, cryogenic cooling of cheese curd, etc. Most of the changes in the cheese yield stems from the effect on size of fat globules, disruption of casein micelle and its association with the milk fat and to some extent the denaturation of whey protein as a result of novel processing technologies. The processing techniques that can give increased cheese yield as a result of enhanced recovery of milk constituents would be the promising choice that the cheese maker would like to adopt.