Cream cheese

Cream cheese is mainly made from fresh cow's milk, but can also be made from goat's or ewe's milk. While "historic" products involve enriching milk fat, advances in food science and innovation in formulation have enabled the development of reduced-fat cream cheeses. These have properties similar to those of products with high dry fats: suitability for cold use, in particular spreadability, and hot use, when used as culinary aids in desserts and ready-made meals. Since 2015, there have also been alternatives made from vegetable ingredients (proteins and fats), or more recently from fermented proteins.

Cream cheeses can be obtained using a variety of processes, ranging from ancient techniques such as bag filter draining to more modern techniques such as cross-flow filtration . Since the 1950s, the choice of technical parameters for fat/protein standardization, heat treatment, homogenization and acidification processes has received increasing attention in order to optimize processes. For the future, there are still many opportunities for optimization: enzymatic modification of proteins, fat/protein interface, high hydrostatic pressure and thermo-sonication (ultrasound), interactions between bacteria and hydrocolloids, consideration of more eco-compatible processes, etc.

Growth in cream cheese production is set to continue, underpinned by strong demand and further expansion in the Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Latin American markets.