JP5695370B2 - Cheese and its manufacturing method - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to cheeses having good storage stability and a method for producing the same.
In the present invention, “cheese” is defined in natural cheese, processed cheese, cheese food, etc., ordinances of milk (December 27, 1951, Ministry of Health and Welfare Ordinance No. 52), component standards of fair competition regulations, etc. In addition to the above, all those having a normal meaning in the technical field are included.

  When storing and distributing cheeses at room temperature, in addition to the hygiene problem of having to suppress the growth of microorganisms, changes in the physical properties of cheese itself, that is, the structure of cheese at room temperature However, there is a problem that it is necessary to suppress the deterioration of the structure, which is hard and brittle, and the texture becomes worse. Regarding the growth control of microorganisms, the progress of packaging technology, the method of keeping cheese at low pH, the addition of sugars such as sorbitol to cheese, the method of increasing the solid content in cheese, the cheese being dried, and the moisture content being lowered The method of making it known is a certain effect. However, the microbial control is limited only by the packaging technology, and when sorbitol or the like is added, the cheese has a brittle texture and the original structure of the cheese cannot be maintained. Moreover, in the method of drying cheese, various problems arise when considering the flavor and texture of cheese, such as the texture of the cheese changing and the texture changing. That is, at the time of storage / distribution at room temperature, in existing methods, deterioration of cheese structure still remains as a major issue.

  On the other hand, as far as process cheese is concerned, as a method of suppressing tissue deterioration, a method of suppressing the decrease in the amount of soluble protein accompanying a decrease in pH by adjusting the pH to 6.0 or more (Patent Document 1). However, when the pH is raised to a neutral range, there is a problem that microorganisms are easy to propagate.

  From the above, at the time of distributing natural cheese at room temperature, for example, a method of extremely reducing the moisture value is used, such as powdered cheese. However, when the moisture value is extremely lowered in this way, the cheese structure becomes hard, so the distribution form is limited at present and no effective technique is disclosed.

Glycerin has been added to foods as a softener such as noodles and ice cream, in addition to its use as a solvent for coloring agents, flavoring agents, preservatives, etc. Two cases are published. First, Patent Document 2 is a cheese intended to be cooked in a range or the like, but in order to impart heat-resistant shape retention, the heating temperature of the raw cheese is about 60 ° C. or less. Therefore, the smooth texture as in the present invention cannot be obtained. Moreover, patent document 3 is cheese for frozen desserts, and it is not assumed to eat directly like this invention, and there is no description about the manufacturing method made to contact glycerin directly. That is, the example which uses glycerin for cheese manufacture is hardly known at present, and the usage method was unknown.

JP 2002-209515 A JP 2004-321183 A Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 08-256696

  The objective of this invention is providing the cheeses excellent in the preservability, and its manufacturing method.

  As a result of earnest research, the present inventors have found that cheeses having good storage stability can be obtained by bringing natural cheese or processed cheeses into contact with a glycerin solution, and the present invention has been completed based on this finding. It was.

That is, the present invention includes the following aspects.
(1) Cheese characterized by having a water activity of 0.3 to 0.94 by contacting raw cheeses with glycerin, or
(2) The cheeses according to (1), wherein the contact between the raw cheeses and the glycerin solution is at least one of coating, dipping, and spraying methods, or
(3) The cheese according to (1) or (2), wherein the concentration of the glycerin solution is 30% to 100%, or
(4) A method for producing cheese characterized by bringing raw cheese into contact with a glycerin solution, or
(5) The method for producing cheeses according to (4), wherein the glycerin concentration of the glycerin solution is 30% to 100%, or
(6) A method for producing cheeses, comprising bringing a glycerin solution having a concentration of 30% to 100% into contact with raw material cheeses until the water activity of the cheeses becomes 0.3 to 0.94.

  The cheeses of the present invention have good storage stability, can be distributed at room temperature that could only be achieved with dry cheese, etc., and are close to the original smooth structure of cheese, even during long-term storage, the structure of cheese Has the characteristic of not deteriorating.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail.
[material]
In this invention, cheese is made to contact with a glycerol solution. In addition, in this specification, cheeses before making it contact with a glycerol solution are expressed as "raw material cheeses" for convenience. The raw material cheeses used in the present invention are not particularly limited, in addition to natural cheese such as cheddar cheese, gouda cheese, edam cheese, emmental cheese, parmesan cheese, camembert cheese, blue cheese, cream cheese, quark cheese, cottage cheese, Foods made mainly from processed cheeses, cheese foods, milk, etc. produced using these as raw materials can also be used.

The glycerin solution used in the present invention needs to have a glycerin concentration of 30% or more, and if it is less than 30%, a desired water activity cannot be obtained.

[Production method]
In the present invention, these raw cheeses are brought into contact with a glycerin solution so that the water activity is in the range of 0.30 to 0.94. If it is less than 0.30, cheeses will become hard and a structure | tissue will deteriorate. On the other hand, if it is 0.94 or more, there is a problem that microorganisms grow and the storage stability deteriorates.
In the present invention, as a method of bringing the raw cheese into contact with the glycerin solution, in addition to the “dipping method” in which the raw cheese is directly immersed in the glycerin solution, the “spraying method” in which the glycerin solution is sprayed onto the raw cheese, A “coating method” for coating raw material cheese can be disclosed, and in principle, a similar method may be used. There is no restriction | limiting in particular in the contact time of raw material cheeses and glycerol, What is necessary is just to continue a contact until it becomes desired water activity. According to the present invention, since the water activity of the raw cheeses is reduced by the action of glycerin, cheeses that have excellent storage stability and can be distributed at room temperature can be obtained. Moreover, cheeses having various textures can be obtained by adjusting the contact conditions between the glycerin solution and the raw material cheeses, such as the concentration of the glycerin solution, the contact time, and the temperature.
In addition, about temperature conditions, it is preferable to process at -5 degreeC-75 degreeC, More preferably, it is preferable to process at 4 to 60 degreeC. Within this range, the higher the temperature condition, the shorter the processing.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to Examples and Comparative Examples, but the present invention is not limited to these Examples and the like.

  20 kg of Gouda cheese (domestic) was cut into 1 cm square with a die cutter. After immersing the cheese in 20 kg of an 80% glycerin aqueous solution at 15 ° C. for 23 hours, the excess glycerin aqueous solution was removed by allowing to stand for 5 hours to obtain Example 1 product.

[Comparative Example 1]
20 kg of Gouda cheese (domestic) was cut into 1 cm square with a die cutter. It left still in the thermostatic chamber of 15 to 20 degreeC, and naturally dried for 49 hours, and the comparative example product 1 was obtained.

[Test Example 1]
About Example goods 1 and comparative example goods 1, water activity was measured and organization and flavor were checked. The flavor was subjected to sensory evaluation by a specialized panelist, and was evaluated in three stages: ○ good, △ somewhat bad, and × bad. The results are shown in Table 1.

The test results with natural cheese are shown in Table 1. In comparative example product 1 which was naturally dried, the surface was so hard that it was hard to chew with teeth, and it was difficult to eat as it was. On the other hand, Example Product 1 treated by the glycerin dipping method had a uniform texture on the surface and inside, and remained soft, and had a good texture as a chewy cheese.
That is, by the method of the present invention, it was possible to obtain cheeses excellent in storage stability at normal temperature while maintaining the same texture as cheese.

  8.4 kg of cheddar cheese (Australia) crushed with a meat chopper, 200 g of molten salt (JOHA C, manufactured by BK Gurini) are charged into a vertical shearing emulsifier (manufactured by Nichiraku Kikai Co., Ltd.), and steam is put into the jacket. While blowing, the mixture was stirred at 1200 rpm and heat emulsified to 85 ° C. After emulsification, it was filled and packaged in a polyethylene packaging material and cooled to 20 ° C. The obtained processed cheese was cut into 1 cm square dies. 8 kg of the cut cheese was immersed in 25 kg of an 80% glycerin aqueous solution (20 ° C.) at 20 ° C. for 3 hours, and then allowed to stand for 5 hours to remove the excess glycerin aqueous solution.

[Comparative Example 2]
8.4 kg of cheddar cheese (Australia) crushed with meat chopper, 200 g of molten salt (JOHA C, manufactured by BK Gurini) are charged into a vertical shearing emulsifier (manufactured by Nichiraku Kikai Co., Ltd.), and steam is put into the jacket. While blowing, the mixture was stirred at 1200 rpm and heat emulsified to 85 ° C. After emulsification, it was filled and packaged in a polyethylene packaging material and cooled to 20 ° C. 8 kg of the obtained processed cheese was cut into 1 cm square. The cheese was allowed to stand at 20 ° C., dried by natural drying for 2 days, and Comparative Example Product 2 was obtained.

[Comparative Example 3]
8.4 kg of cheddar cheese (Australia) ground with a meat chopper, 200 g of molten salt (JOHA C, manufactured by BK Gurini), and 800 g of sorbitol are charged into a vertical shearing emulsifier (manufactured by Nichiraku Kikai Co., Ltd.) The mixture was stirred at 1200 rpm and steamed to 85 ° C. while blowing steam. After emulsification, it was filled and packaged in a polyethylene packaging material and cooled to 20 ° C. The obtained processed cheese was cut into 1 cm square with a die cutter to obtain Comparative Example Product 3.

[Test Example 2]
For Example Product 2 and Comparative Product 2 and 3, the water activity was measured in the same manner as in Test Example 1, and the structure and flavor were confirmed. Similarly, the sensory evaluation of the flavor was performed by a specialized panelist, and the evaluation was made in three stages: ○ good, Δ somewhat bad, and × bad. The results are shown in Table 2.

  From Table 2, the surface of Comparative Example Product 2 dried at room temperature was dried, the inside did not dry, and a difference in hardness was recognized between the inside and the outside. Moreover, since the surface was hard, it was different from the cheese texture before drying. In Comparative Example 3 processed by the sorbitol mixing method, the texture was soft and the smooth characteristics of the cheese were lost. Furthermore, the sweetness was strong by addition of sorbitol, and it was close to sweets. On the other hand, Example Product 2 treated by the glycerin dipping method had good softness close to that of ordinary process cheese and smooth texture. In addition, the flavor of the cheese remained, and the flavor was good.

[Test Example 3]
For Example Product 2, the number of general bacteria was analyzed in order to confirm the storage stability at room temperature. The results are shown in Table 3.

From Table 3, the natural cheese before processing detected 6 × 10 ⁵ bacteria / g of lactic acid bacteria, but after immersing in glycerin, it was almost undetectable, and this state was maintained even after 3 months. It had been. From this, it is understood that the storage stability is drastically improved by immersing in glycerin.

  Process cheese (manufactured by Snow Brand Milk Products Co., Ltd., 10 kg block) was cut into 2 cm square with a die cutter. 100 kg of cut cheese was immersed in 500 kg of an 80% glycerin aqueous solution at 25 ° C. for 3 hours, and allowed to stand overnight while cooling to 10 ° C. to remove excess water. The water activity of the obtained cheese was 0.84. Moreover, cheese maintained elasticity and was favorable flavor.

10 kg of natural cream cheese (made by Snow Brand Milk Products Co., Ltd.) molded into 5 cm × 5 cm × 2 cm was immersed in 30 kg of 100% glycerin solution at 3 ° C. for 6 hours. The water activity of the obtained natural cream cheese was 0.86, it had a rich flavor and a firm texture, the number of general bacteria was 10 or less / g, and it was a microbially stable product.

10 kg of block cheddar cheese (Australia) was immersed in a 60% aqueous glycerin solution at 10 ° C. and treated for 96 hours. After the treatment, it was processed into a flake shape having a length of 3 cm to obtain flake cheese. The water activity of the obtained cheese was 0.94 and had a rich cheese flavor. The general bacterial count was 40 / g.

Process cheese type cream cheese (manufactured by Snow Brand Milk Products Co., Ltd.) was cut into 5 cm square. 2 kg of the cut cream cheese was sprayed with 100 ml of glycerin solution at 20 ° C. at 100 ml / min and treated for 96 hours. The sprayed glycerin aqueous solution was recovered, filtered through a filter (210 μm), and reused. The glycerin solution used every 12 hours was sterilized at 80 ° C. for 10 minutes and reused. As a result, the water activity of the obtained cheese was 0.5, and it had a rich cream cheese flavor close to butter with firm hardness.

5 kg of cheddar cheese (Australia) and 5 kg of Gouda cheese (Australia) crushed with a meat chopper, 170 g of molten salt (JOHA C, manufactured by BK Gurini) are charged into a vertical shearing emulsifier (manufactured by Nichiraku Machinery), While steam was blown into the jacket, the mixture was stirred at 1200 rpm and heat emulsified to 85 ° C. After emulsification, it was filled and packaged in a polyethylene packaging material and cooled to 10 ° C. The obtained block type was cut into 1 cm square and immersed in 50 kg of a 60% aqueous glycerin solution at 25 ° C. for 1 hour at 25 ° C. After the treatment, it was allowed to stand for several hours and dehydrated to obtain dice cheese. The water activity of the obtained dice cheese was 0.91.

50 kg of 70% glycerin aqueous solution was kept at 10 ° C., and 20 kg of Camembert cheese (domestic) divided into 6 equal parts was immersed for 48 hours. The water activity of the camembert cheese after immersion was 0.82, maintaining the form of the camembert cheese and having a good flavor.

A 70% glycerin aqueous solution (40 ° C.) with 0.5% smoke flavor (takasago fragrance) added thereto was prepared, and 20 kg of Gouda cheese treated with a dicer was immersed in 1 cm square. As a result of carrying out processing time for 0.3 hours, the water activity was 0.83. The number of general bacteria of the obtained cheese for normal temperature distribution was 150 / g.

10 kg of processed cheese (Gouda cheese domestically) diced into 3 cm square was sprayed with 300 ml of a 90% aqueous glycerin solution at 60 ° C. per minute. The sprayed glycerin aqueous solution was recovered, filtered through a filter (210 μm), reheated and reused. The treatment time was 0.1 hour, and immediately after the treatment, it was cooled to room temperature. As a result, the water activity of the obtained cheese was 0.85, and a process cheese capable of circulating at room temperature with good cheese flavor and maintaining a dice form could be produced.

  5 kg of natural cheese (skim cheese (fat 9%) from Australia) was cut into 2 cm square dice. Natural cheese with low water activity is soaked in 5 kg of 80% glycerin aqueous solution adjusted to 25 ° C. and immersed for 1 hour while circulating the glycerin aqueous solution at a rate of 6 kg / hour so that the cheese comes into contact with the 80% glycerin aqueous solution. Was prepared. The water activity was 0.9, and the flavor of skim cheese was maintained.

  An 80% glycerin aqueous solution was applied to a 5 kg block of Gouda cheese (domestic) at 15 ° C. Then, the operation | work which wipes off the surface glycerol aqueous solution and the operation | work which apply | coats 80% glycerol aqueous solution again were performed for 9 hours at a frequency of once per hour. Finally, the water on the surface was wiped off to obtain Gouda cheese having a water activity of 0.93.

Claims (3)

A method for producing cheeses, comprising bringing raw material cheeses into contact with a glycerin solution by any one or more methods of spraying and dipping . The method for producing cheeses according to claim 1, wherein the glycerin concentration of the glycerin solution is 30% to 100%. A glycerin solution having a concentration of 30% to 100% is contacted by any one or more methods of applying, spraying, and immersing the raw cheeses until the water activity of the cheeses becomes 0.3 to 0.94. The manufacturing method of cheeses.