Fresh cheese
In many cultures soft fresh cheese products are well known and have a long tradition. Each country has its own soft fresh cheese product such as quark, petit suisse, fromage blanc. The deviations are little and all products belong to the family of fresh cheese.
Definition of soft fresh cheese
Soft fresh cheese is a summarized term for a lot of different cheeses, it is the protein from cheese milk, precipitated by acidification or combined with proteolytic enzymes and the variety-specific quality and quantity of the serum that has not been separated. Soft fresh cheese does not undergo a maturing process after production and, in principle, can be enjoyed immediately after being produced. Legislation stipulates pasteurization of the cheese milk using a certified pasteurization process. For technological, nutritional and economic reasons, supplementary heat treatment is required to produce soft fresh cheese.
How to make Soft fresh cheese? (also called Quark)
You start with skim milk heating and holding with temperature and time applied according to your recipe.
After cooling the milk to fermentation temperature mesophilic culture is added and the milk is left for fermentation until the desired pH is reached. Also rennet is often added to improve the firmness and structure of the curd. The formed coagulum is then agitated to achieve a homogenous structure and even distribution between the liquid and protein phase.
This homogenous curd is then transferred to a second heating step called thermization and is subsequently cooled down to separation temperature and transferred to the fresh cheese separator.
The fresh cheese separator removes whey from the curd. Downstream the separator an immediate first cooling with a heat exchanger is key to stop further acidification and to maintain a good structure of the fresh cheese.
Before final packing and cooling you can blend cream, herbs or whatever your customers like in line to your fresh cheese.
Did you know when you have a GEA soft fresh cheese line you can easily make strained yoghurt?
Market
In many cultures soft fresh cheese products are well known and have a long tradition. Each country has its own soft fresh cheese product such as quark, petit suisse, fromage blanc. The deviations are little and all products belong to the family of soft fresh cheese.
Reasons for growth
One reason for the growth of soft fresh cheese products is the increasing importance of healthy food in industrial countries. Here soft fresh cheese products with a high protein content and high nutritional value without additives play an important part in a healthy nutrition not only for children.
Another reason for the growth was the use of separators that enabled soft fresh cheese to be produced on a large scale. GEA has done pioneering work in both separator design and the ongoing development of production processes. To ensure that soft fresh cheese production is efficient and economical, GEA is still focused on the continued development of machines and process lines. Today GEA has not only separators but also filtration systems in the portfolio for soft fresh cheese products.
