Stability of cheese emulsions for spray drying

In cheese powder production, cheese is melted with water and emulsifying salt to create an emulsion (denoted cheese feed) that should remain stable until and during spray drying. The aim of this study was to investigate how reduction of emulsifying salt may be compensated for by use of different combinations of cheese types. Cheese feeds were produced at laboratory scale from combinations of Cheddar, Camembert and soft white cheese. Methods for feed characterisation and determination of phase separation of feed were evaluated for applicability to describe the characteristics of the cheese feed. Cheese feed stability generally decreased when the concentration of emulsifying salt was reduced. Emulsion stability of cheese feeds of Cheddar in combination with either soft white cheese or, especially, Camembert were generally higher than for feeds produced with Cheddar only. The functionalities of stabilisation may be related to pH, calcium concentration, level of intact casein and salt-to-moisture ratio.