Measurement techniques for steady shear viscosity of Mozzarella-type cheeses at high shear rates and high temperature

While measuring steady shear viscosity of Mozzarella-type cheeses in a rotational rheometer at 70 °C, three main difficulties were encountered; wall slip, structural failure during measurement and viscoelastic time dependent effects. Serrated plates were the most successful surface modification at eliminating wall slip. However, even with serrated plates shear banding occurred at higher shear rates. Because of the viscoelastic nature of the cheeses, a time dependent viscous response occurred at shear rates <1 s−1, requiring longer times to attain steady shear conditions. Prolonged continuous shearing altered the structure of the molten cheeses. The effects of structural change were greatly reduced by minimising the total accumulated strain exerted on the sample during flow curve determination. These techniques enabled successful measurement of steady shear viscosity of molten Mozzarella-type cheeses at 70 °C at shear rates up to 250 s−1.