Making processed cheese

Cheese has always been an important part of the human diet. It is the result of a very ancient transformation of milk, since written records testify to its manufacture some three thousand years before our era in lower Mesopotamia. A valuable source of protein, cheese was one of the first ways of preserving milk, a rapidly perishable raw material. However, the coagulation of milk and the resulting draining of the curd offer only relative stability, which varies from one cheese to another, as they are "living" dairy products. So, while proteolysis is a fundamental phenomenon during ripening, this enzymatic activity continues even at low temperatures, and beyond a certain stage leads to cheese deterioration. Several processes have been developed to extend the shelf life of cheese. Processed cheese is a much more recent preparation, which has enabled a much more thorough stabilization of milk proteins, while retaining more or less the appearance of a cheese. Initially intended for direct consumption, it is still a type of cheese perfectly suited to today's consumer habits: spreadable, with a mild flavor, it is an energetic food rich in proteins and minerals; it is easily digestible, microbiologically safe and, what's more, it can be stored at room temperature while offering great convenience of use. Nevertheless, its direct consumption remains marginal in a country with such a strong cheese-making tradition as France. This explains why more than half of French production is exported, and why processed cheese alone accounts for 50% of French cheese exports. For some years now, the niche with strong growth potential has been represented by indirect consumption, i.e. cheeses incorporated into industrial culinary preparations such as gratins, lasagne, pizzas and others. This is a prime area for the development of melting techniques that modify the behavior of dairy proteins when heated. Indeed, if traditional cheeses are not always perfectly suited to remelting, it's because they weren't designed for it in the first place. Moulding techniques enable us to optimize the cheese's functionality in terms of remelting ability, topping and stretching power, etc., while lowering production costs. This has led to the emergence of analogues which, because of the ingredients they incorporate, are not entitled to the appellation of cheese, but make extensive use of melting techniques.