Feta cheese: physical properties

Feta is one of the most popular, international, white brined cheeses made in many southern European and Middle Eastern countries: Greece, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Egypt, and Israel.

These cheeses derived from goat’s and sheep’s milk (up to 30% goat’s milk), It has been ripened. Fat content based on dry matter approximately 43% and humidity 56% maximum.

Feta cheese does not contain any additives. Feta cheese has a salty, slightly acid taste and pleasant sensory properties that nowadays have a worldwide acceptance.

It contains more moisture and are comparable to cheese made from part-skim cow’s milk. Feta texture is creamy or crumbly dry, varying according to age, local environment, animal breeds and starter cultures.
Feta cheese: physical properties

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

Cheese as ingredient in food

The term cheese belongs to a group of fermented milk. Essentially, cheese is a medium moisture product (30% to 50% water) with an extended shelf life. Most cheese is made from cow’s milk. Sheep, goat, buffalo and reindeer milk is also used.

Owing to its numerous varieties, cheese offers the consumer a very wide diversity of flavors, aroma, mouth feel, textures, structure, melt properties and nutrition.

While it is generally assumed that cheese was originally eaten on its own or with bread, humans, probably soon realized that it enhanced the organoleptic qualities of other foods to which it was added.

Natural and processed cheese can be utilized as a base for dips, a flavorful complement to foods such as pasta or potatoes, a seasoning for vegetables, meats, sauces and as a filling in desserts and bakery products. 

Functional cheese derivatives have been developed for use in specialty food products.

For example, quick melting cheese slices for cheeseburgers, cheese sauces for Mexican dishes, and high melt cheese products for filling meat product are commercially manufactured to meet demands of fast food and other food service businesses.

Cheese provides calories, high quality protein, vitamins, and minerals, such as calcium, phosphorus, and zinc.

Today natural cheese continues to be used as a major ingredient in the hotel and catering industry.
Cheese as ingredient in food