Optimizing Mozzarella Cheese

Manufacture
Prof. Donald J. McMahon
Western Dairy Center
Utah State University
With Acknowledgments to Prof. Craig Oberg and other
colleagues, as well as to Dr. Andres Pastorino and many others
who worked with me during the past 30 years and have
increased our understanding of cheese.

Presented at INLACTIS 2015 Cheese Symposium, Nov 17-18, 2015,

Montevideo, Uruguay

1
 What controls the performance
of Mozzarella cheese?
Manufacturing
Starter Cultures Parameters
•  Acid Production.
•  Fat content
•  Conversion of
lactose ! glucose Cheese •  Moisture content
•  Calcium content
and galactose. Composition and •  Residual rennet in
•  Proteolysis of
proteins ! peptides
Chemistry cheese
•  pH of the cheese
during storage.

Determines
•  Salt content

Ability of Curd to Cheese

undergo the pasta Influe Cheese Properties
nces
filata process Properties when Heated
when Cold

2
 If you get the chemistry right, its easy to get
even a Fat Free Mozzarella cheese to melt and
stretch when baked on a pizza?
•  Direct acidification.
•  Reduces calcium
•  Increases moisture
•  No aging required.
•  Still needs some
protection from
dehydration in
forced-air
convection oven

Make cheese in the morning, eat pizza for lunch!

3
 Influence of
Fat on Cheese Properties

4
 Fat increases moisture content of cheese,
especially the expressible moisture

Low Fat Cheese (8% fat)

Part Skim Cheese (19% fat)
60

% of Total Moisture
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 5 10 15 20 25
Storage Time (d)

5
What happens during cooking
and stretching?
Same Process
Small Scale
Large Scale

6
 What allows a pasta filata
cheese to form into strings?
•  It requires proteins:

Demonstrating the stringiness of •  Plus, fat particles

Oaxaca cheese.

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 No fat, no stringiness
•  Remove the fat and no strands form
! and the cheese lacks fibers & stringiness

10 cm

1% Fat
20% Fat

Fat removed during sample preparation for Scanning Electron Microscopy

8
If you want to have stringiness you need
to create channels between the protein
strands during extrusion.

•  Adding xanthan gum to

hot cheese prevents
protein fusion

9
 What happens to the cheese
when you bake a pizza?
•  If the chemistry is right, the cheese will melt and flow
—but not too much.
•  Heat from the oven evaporates moisture from the
cheese.
•  Fat released from the cheese slows down
evaporation.
•  If not enough fat released the cheese will dehydrate.
•  Solutions for baking pizza with low fat cheese:

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 Or put fat in the cheese in an easily
releasable form.
•  Produce a low fat cheese
in which the fat is present
in two different forms.

•  Only a portion of the fat is

locked within the protein
network matrix
•  Most of the fat is present
as easily-released fat
within the cheese shreds.

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 Easily releasable fat helps
cheese to melt quicker
100
% height remaining

80

60 Control
1.5% Added Bu6er
40
3% Added Bu6er

20 4.5% Added Bu6er

All cheeses contain 6% total fat
0
0 5 10 15 Wadhwani et al. 2011,. J.
Time (s) Dairy Sci. 94:1713–1723

•  Increased flow at 65°C when 3% fat added as

free oil rather than being entrapped within the
protein network structure.

12
 Influence of
Cheese pH and Calcium

13
 Making Curd for Mozzarella
Cheese is about
acidification and its effect
on calcium solubility

Slow overnight acidification of Fast acidification is required when making

curd when using a wooden vat to mozzarella cheese on a large scale using
make Ragusano cheese in Sicily millions of liters of milk per day

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Lowering pH of Milk before Renneting is
the most effective way to lower the
amount of calcium bound to proteins
Pre-acidification of milk increases calcium phosphate solubility and
more calcium is lost when the curd is cut and whey is expelled.

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 The next control point for lowering
calcium in cheese is the pH when the
whey is drained
A lower pH at draining will result in lower calcium content of the
cheese even when the final pH of the cheese is the same.

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 At what pH is the cheese curd ready to
go to the cooker-stretcher?
This depends on the method of acidification.
Not enough calcium solubilized (pH too high) ! curd is too rubbery
Too much calcium solublized (pH too low) ! curd melts too much

•  Traditionally, curd is
reading for the cooker
when it reaches pH
5.2-5.3.
•  Partial pre-acidification
allows curd to be
stretched at higher pH.
•  Curd made by chemical
Curd being milled and exiting acidification without
a draining matting and starters can be stretched
cheddaring belt at pH 5.6 or higher.

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How does calcium influence
cheese functionality?

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 From a study of non fat mozzarella cheese made using direct acidification
McMahon et al, 2005. J. Dairy Sci. 88:3754-3763.
.
1000 1000
R2 = 0.78 R2 = 0.74
800 800
Hardness

Hardness
600 600
400 400
200 200
0 0
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 64 66 68 70 72 74
Calcium (%) Moisture (%)

•  Increased as calcium was increased

•  Decreased as moisture was increased
•  Low correlation with pH (R2 = 0.33)

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 100 •  Low calcium
cheeses more
Adhesiveness

80
60 R2 = 0.78 adhesive and
40 sticky.
•  The most
20
0
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 stickiness was in
Calcium (%) the cheese with
highest moisture
and lowest calcium
content.

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•  In this study, no
influence of
moisture on melting. 30

•  No influence of pH R2 = 0.91

Melt (cm)
on melting when the
20

calcium was held 10

constant.
0
•  3-fold increase in 0.2 0.4 0.6
Calcium (%)
0.8

meltability when
calcium content
reduced

21
 Balancing
Melting and Machineability
•  At high moisture levels (e.g. 66 to 73%), calcium
content of nonfat cheese is the predominant
factor affecting cheese texture and melting.!
•  While lowering calcium improves melting
properties, it makes the cheese softer and more
sticky.!
•  Machinability, or the ability to shred or slice a
cheese, depends on hardness and the cheese
having low adhesiveness, both of which are
inversely related to meltability!

22
 What can we learn from
studying Microstructure ?
•  Shows spatial organization of proteins
and fat.
•  Structure of the cheese protein matrix
helps us understand the extent to
which interactions of the proteins with
water promote protein-protein
interactions that cause aggregation.

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 Spatial Arrangements
•  Different methods.

•  Study cheese with different fat levels

SEM of Hot Mozzarella TEM of Mozzarella Sting Cheese
- by Mr. William McManus, Utah - by Dr. Almut Vollmer, Western Dairy
State University, deceased Center, Utah State University

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 Optimizing Calcium
•  Calcium is a key control parameter for cheese
properties.
•  Between pH 5.8 and pH 5.0, the amount of calcium
bound to proteins controls their functionality
•  Calcium bound to the proteins can be lowered by
•  Lowering the total calcium content
•  Lowering pH to increase the %soluble calcium
•  Cheese with reduced calcium will
•  Have higher moisture content
•  Be softer
•  Melt more
•  Pre-acidification is the easiest way to reduce calcium

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Protein Matrix @ pH 5.8 and 0.6% Ca

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Protein Matrix @ pH 5.3 and 0.6% Ca

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Protein Matrix @ pH 5.3 and 0.3% Ca

•  Homogeneous protein
matrix with no strands
or large voids evident.
•  Retained more
moisture than versus
0.6% calcium

•  Melted easily
•  Cheese was soft, sticky
McMahon et al, 2005. J. Dairy Sci.
88:3754-3763

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 Comparing Protein Matrix
with 0.3% and 0.6% calcium
•  Proteins are more densely packed together with the
higher calcium level.
•  Protein matrix holds more moisture as calcium reduced

0.3% calcium 0.6% calcium

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 Nonfat Cheese
Heating and 10°C 50°C

Cooling
•  Protein aggregation in
cheese is driven by
hydrophobic interactions
as well as by calcium.
•  Cooling causes the protein
matrix to “relax” and
absorb moisture.
•  Heating causes the protein
to be attracted to each
other and the matrix
Translucent Opaque
structure to contract.
Pastorino et al, 2002.. J. Dairy Sci. 85:2106-2113

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 Response of Cheese Matrix
More Hydrated More Aggregated
Expanded
Melts BetterMatrix Melts Less
Contracted Matrix
Softer
More Hydrated Control Harder-More Rubbery
More Aggregated

Increase Calcium
Add Salt
If pH above 5.0 Lowering pH If pH below 5.0
Proteolysis during storage
Cold Temperature

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You’ve made a cheese
so it cooks and
stretches well, now it
needs salt and has to
be cooled.

32
 Cooling and Salting
•  Traditional method:

•  Some alternate salting methods

•  Cheese needs to be in the brine long

enough to cool and absorb salt
33
If it’s all about the chemistry,
what role do the starter
cultures play?

34
Contributions of starter culture
•  Prime function of starter culture is to convert lactose
into lactic acid.
•  Impacts of acid production during cheesemaking.

•  How they utilize lactose determines if the cheese

has residual galactose

•  Starter bacteria produce enzymes that can

hydrolyze proteins.

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 Effect of Proteolysis

•  Proteolysis:
•  Occurs during aging
•  Involves residual rennet enzymes
•  Involves starter culture enzymes
•  Produces a softer cheese
•  Influences cheese meltability

36
 Making cheese with different
starters and rennet
•  Cheese made with coccus only starter (SC) and mixed coccus and rod (MC)
•  Longer make time with coccus only starter and so lower moisture

•  Two types of rennet used at two levels.

Parameter
Fat Protein Ash Calcium Salt Moisture

SC 18.79 a 32.53 a 3.53 a 1.04 1.05 43.23 a

MC 18.37 b 32.94 b 3.27 b 1.01 0.97 45.64 b

LSD 0.218 0.276 0.087 0.092 0.096 0.393

37
 Increase in melt area
(Modified Schreiber test)

Amount of Rennet Type of Starter Type of Rennet

Mixed culture = St. thermophilus + Lb. helveticus
Dave et al, 2003. Le Lait 83:61-77.

38
 Firmness of Cheese
(Measured as Loss Modulus)

There were similar differences in Storage Modulus, G’

39
 Melt and Stretch
(Using different Lb. helveticus)

C0 = coccus only (44% moisture versus 48% moisture when Lb. helveticus added)
CI, CIII, CV = coccus plus 3 different Lb. helveticus that hydrolyze αs-casein differently
More stretch properties when less proteolysis occurs and when cheese doesn’t melt as
extensively.
Oommen et al, 2002 J. Dairy Sci. 85:2750-2758.

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 Extent of Proteolysis
(% Soluble Protein)

Amount of Rennet Type of Starter Type of Rennet

Mixed culture = St. thermophilus + Lb. helveticus

41
 Hydrolysis of αs-casein

Amount of Rennet Type of Starter Type of Rennet

Mixed culture = St. thermophilus + Lb. helveticus

42
 Hydrolysis of β-casein

Amount of Rennet Type of Starter Type of Rennet

Mixed culture = St. thermophilus + Lb. helveticus

43
 Optimizing Proteolysis
•  More proteolysis occurs in mozzarella cheese than
in cheddar cheese.
•  Higher residual rennet increases proteolysis during
storage
•  Using Cryphonectria parasitica rennet increases
melting by hydrolyzing β-casein.
•  When using chymosin as the rennet, melting is
dependent on continued protein hydrolysis by the
culture enzymes.
•  Different strains of Lb. helveticus hydrolyze
αs-casein differently which then influences melting
and stretching.

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 Optimizing Proteolysis
•  Less proteolysis occurs when using a
Streptococcus only starter culture which
means

45
 Browning During Baking
Browning requires a reducing sugar as well as available amine groups

46
 Controlling Browning
•  Ensure fermentations go to
completion

•  Add cultures that ferment galactose

•  Wash curd to remove lactose and

galactose
•  Reduce proteolysis
(MOST EFFECTIVE)

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 Making Mozzarella is Evolving
•  Producing cheese the customer wants
(for pizza, for baking, for snacking)
on a COST-EFFICIENT basis.
NON-TRADITIONAL TECHNOLOGIES

•  Adding components within the cooker stretcher.

•  Waterless cooking and stretching
•  Shredding and freezing
•  Replacing the curd making process ?

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What will be the future?

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 Donald McMahon
donald.mcmahon@usu.edu
+1-435-797-3644

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