Effect of Moderate Pressure Treatments on Microstructure, Texture, and Sensory Properties of Stirred-Curd Cheddar Shreds

Originally published in Journal of Dairy Science (http://www.journalofdairyscience.org/)and copyrighted by the American Dairy Science Association.A moderate high-pressure processing (HPP) treatment\ud is proposed to accelerate the shredability of Cheddar\ud cheese. High pressure processing (345 and 483 MPa\ud for 3 and 7 min) applied to unripened (1 d old) stirredcurd\ud Cheddar cheese yielded microstructure changes\ud that differed with pressure level and processing time.\ud Untreated and pressure-treated cheese shredded at d\ud 27 and 1, respectively, shared similar visual and tactile\ud sensory properties. The moderate (345 MPa) and the\ud higher (483 MPa) pressure treatments reduced the\ud presence of crumbles, increased mean shred particle\ud length, improved length uniformity, and enhanced surface\ud smoothness in shreds produced from unripened\ud cheese. High-pressure processing treatments did not\ud affect the mechanical properties of ripened cheese or\ud the proteolytic susceptibility of milk protein. It was\ud concluded that a moderate HPP treatment could allow\ud processors to shred Cheddar cheese immediately after\ud block cooling, reducing refrigerated storage costs, with\ud expected savings of over 15 US$/1000 lb cheese, and\ud allowing fewer steps in the handling of cheese blocks\ud produced for shreddin