Mozerrela Cheese processing
"Mozzarella cheese is known for its characteristic stretchy texture and mild flavor, and is used in a variety of dishes, including pizza, sandwiches, and salads. It’s processing involves several steps, including milk pasteurization, curd formation, stretching, and shaping. #dairy #cheese #mozzarella #f&bindustry #foodprocessing #pmgengineering"
Mozzarella is a semi-soft, unripened cheese belonging to the "pasta filata" family, in which the curd is expertly stretched in hot water to produce a smooth texture and grain. It was originally made with Italian high fat buffalo milk and is now also made from cow milk in the United States and in Europe. For a processor, the defining unit operation is not the vat but the stretcher: the amount of calcium available for casein crosslinking controls the development of curd stretch, and good pasta-filata depends on having both the right amount of casein-associated calcium and the right amount of moisture in the curd at the time of stretching.
The manufacturing route runs from milk through filtration/clarification, standardisation to 3-4% fat, pasteurisation at 63°C for 30 min and cooling to 31°C. Starter is then added (S. thermophilus and L. bulgaricus, 1:1) followed by rennet at 1.0-1.5 g/100 l milk; alternatively, direct acidification to pH 5.4-5.6 using 25-50% HCl at 2.0-3.5 ml/l milk may be used, with heating at 28-30°C applied only in the case of acid addition. Downstream the curd is cut, cooked at 42-44 °C, pitched, drained, cheddared to 0.70% acidity, milled, then plasticised and stretched under hot water at 80-85°C before moulding, brining in 20-22% chilled brine, packaging and storage.
Product quality targets are specific: a smooth surface with a perfect sheen is the desired quality in good mozzarella, and when made into string cheese or pizza cheese it should carry a very delicate flavour that only comes from the starter culture's lactic fermentation. Common defects include a rubbery, tough texture, lack of flavour, paleness or green tint, inability to melt and poor stretchability. Poor shredability is a distinct problem: cheese with higher fat (> 25%) and lower protein content (< 20%) produced the most fines during shredding, with rheological properties and tack energy appearing to be the key factors involved in shredding defects.
Packaging must meet two basic requirements: exclusion of oxygen to prevent mould growth and rancidity, and retention of moisture to preserve texture and avoid weight loss. Vacuum packaging helps reduce the increase of mould in packaged cheese, while irregular shaped mozzarella is generally packaged in flexible roll films, thermoformable packets or shrinkable pouches such as cryovac. The product family itself spans fresh mozzarella (mozzarella di bufala) from water buffalo milk, low-moisture mozzarella from cow's milk for pizza and grating, smoked mozzarella, part-skim mozzarella and burrata.