Industrial freezing and tempering for optimal functional properties in thawed Mozzarella cheese

Anita P Pax; Lydia Ong; Randolph A Pax; Jitraporn Vongsvivut; Mark J Tobin; Sandra E Kentish; Sally L Gras

doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2022.134933

Industrial freezing and tempering for optimal functional properties in thawed Mozzarella cheese

Food Chem. 2023 Mar 30;405(Pt B):134933. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2022.134933. Epub 2022 Nov 12.

Authors

Anita P Pax¹, Lydia Ong¹, Randolph A Pax², Jitraporn Vongsvivut³, Mark J Tobin³, Sandra E Kentish⁴, Sally L Gras⁵

Affiliations

¹ The ARC Dairy Innovation Hub, The Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia; The Bio21 Institute, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia.
² RAP Innovation and Development Pty Ltd, PO Box 559, Indooroopilly, Queensland 4068, Australia.
³ Infrared Microspectroscopy (IRM) Beamline, ANSTO - Australian Synchrotron, 800 Blackburn Road, Clayton, Victoria 3168, Australia.
⁴ The ARC Dairy Innovation Hub, The Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia.
⁵ The ARC Dairy Innovation Hub, The Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia; The Bio21 Institute, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia. Electronic address: sgras@unimelb.edu.au.

PMID: 36410214
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2022.134933

Abstract

Mozzarella cheese was industrially frozen (-18 °C), stored for up to six months, tempered at 4 °C for one or three weeks and the structure and functionality compared to cheese stored at 4 °C and cheese aged at 4 °C for four weeks prior to freezing. When combined with ageing or tempering, the slow industrial freezing minimised changes to the protein network as detected by confocal microscopy and arrested proteolysis. Cheese functionality improved with three weeks of tempering, with properties similar to cheese refrigerated for one month, potentially due to increased proteolysis and protein rehydration. Frozen storage induced β-sheet and β-turn structures, as detected by S-FTIR microspectroscopy, with longer tempering leading to structural recovery in the cheese. This study indicates the proteolysis and functionality of frozen cheese can be optimised with tempering time. It also provides new insights into heat transfer during the industrial freezing and tempering of cheese.

Keywords: Dairy; Freezing; Frozen; Heat transfer; Meltability; Microstructure; Protein structure; Temperature profile.

MeSH terms

Cheese*
Freezing
Industry
Proteolysis