Pasteurized process cheese

Process cheese is a food made from selected cheddar cheese, although Swiss, Limburger, Brick and others are sometimes used.

Approximately one-third of the cheese produced in the United States is marketed as a pasteurized process cheese. Fast-food giants like McDonald’s and Burger King rely in the consistency in flavor and melting qualities of pasteurized process cheese.

The various flavors of process cheeses are the result of the natural cheeses selected for making a particular process cheese.

Pasteurized process cheese sometimes called processed cheese or process cheese, is convenient not only for food service, the primary user, but also retail because these cheese are available in regular and reduced-fat varieties, chinks, cubes, spreads, loafs, slices as well as in grated or shredded applications.

The basic premise is to stabilize the proteins that are normally affected already during one or more of the cheesemaking steps. This is accomplished by heating and mixing cheeses with some emulsifying salts.

The careful selection of cheeses, emulsifying salts and processing factors allows making process cheeses of varied textures suitable for many end uses. The emulsifier added is sodium citrate, disodium phosphate, or other additive that will be effective in binding the high fat content of the natural cheese ingredients with water that is added to the process cheese to produce the desired consistency.
Pasteurized process cheese