Hello everyone, I am Nikitha - A final year MBA student from Amrita School Of Business majoring in
Operations and Marketing. I am back with my
blog and this time I am going to enlighten you with something mouth-watering!
Yes, In the next few paragraphs I am going to explain about CHEESE and how is
it made.
Cheese is a fermented
food derived from the milk of various mammals. Since humans began to
domesticate milk-producing animals around 10,000 B.C. ,
they have known about the propensity of milk to separate into curds and whey. It is the curds that are used to make cheese,
and practically every culture on Earth has developed its own methods, the only
major exceptions being China and the ancient Americas.
The first cheeses were "fresh," that
is, not fermented, similar to today's cottage cheese aka Paneer. By A.D. 100 cheese makers in various countries knew how
to press, ripen, and cure fresh cheeses, thereby creating a product that could
be stored for long periods. Each country or region developed different types of
cheese that reflected local ingredients and conditions. The number of cheeses
thus developed is staggering. France, famous for the quality and variety of its
cheeses, is home to about 400 commercially available cheeses.
The manufacturing Process:
The
picture above gives a complete image of how cheese reaches your plate, Cheese manufacturing is a straightforward yet
nuanced process. Larger cheesemaking factories have automated production lines,
which yield mostly uniform results. In contrast, small batch cheesemakers or
even those making cheeses in the comfort of their
own homes may find that cheese can vary
batch by batch depending on the conditions under which it’s made.
The first step
in the manufacturing process is preparing the milk. It takes
10 pounds of milk to make one pound of cheese. Small batch
cheesemakers typically use unpasteurized milk, which includes the bacteria
needed to produce lactic acid (the agent that makes the cheese curdle). Larger
factories use pasteurized milk and then add the bacteria separately.
Once the milk
is prepared, rennet is added to it to separate the curds and whey. The curds
can be cut using knives and then drained and pressed into molds. After the
curds have been prepared, they are ready for aging (though some soft cheeses,
like cottage cheese, don’t need to be aged). The length of the aging process
varies, depending on the variety of cheese. The cheese might be bathed in brine
to stimulate the growth of mold or rind and then stored in a room at the proper
temperature and humidity. Some cheeses might be aged for only a month, while
others — like extra sharp cheddar — might be set aside to age for up to two
years.
Quality Control :
In the
factory, quality control is ensured by rigorous inspectors who test the cheese
for a variety of factors like texture, body, smell, and taste — and then assign
points based on these characteristics.
Cheese
manufacturing presents some unique challenges, particularly because of the
debate surrounding pasteurized and unpasteurized milk. To ensure the health of
consumers, the FDA requires that many cheeses be made from pasteurized milk,
but it does allow producers to use unpasteurized milk as long as those cheeses
will be aged for more than 60 days. Cheese lovers argue that since
pasteurization destroys the natural bacteria needed to manufacture cheese,
making cheese with pasteurized milk results in an inferior product. Ultimately,
this can make things complicated when it comes to the import and export of
cheese, as different countries have different regulations surrounding pasteurization.
Despite
the ongoing debate surrounding pasteurization, there seem to be no sign of the
cheese supply chain slowing down. Americans can rest assured that
they’re very much on track to reach (if not surpass!) the predicted 37 pounds
per capita consumption rate by 2025.
