Research noteEmulsifying salt increase stability of cheese emulsions during holding

•Centrifugation is applicable for accelerated test of cheese feed stability.•Removal of emulsifying salt from cheese feed reduces stability.•The stability of cheese feed with emulsifying salt increases during holding at 60 °C.

In cheese powder production, cheese is mixed and melted with water and emulsifying salt to form an emulsion (cheese feed) which is required to remain stable at 60 °C for 1 h and during further processing until spray drying. Addition of emulsifying salts ensures this, but recent demands for reduction of sodium and phosphate in foods makes production of cheese powder without or with minimal amounts of emulsifying salts desirable. The present work uses a centrifugation method to characterize stability of model cheese feeds. Stability of cheese feed with emulsifying salt increased with holding time at 60 °C, especially when no stirring was applied. No change in stability during holding was observed in cheese feeds without emulsifying salt. This effect is suggested to be due to continued exerted functionality of the emulsifying salt, possibly through reorganizations of the mineral balance.