Moderately high hydrostatic pressure processing to reduce production costs of shredded cheese: Microstructure, texture, and sensory properties of shredded milled curd cheddar

Short and moderate hydrostatic pressure (MHP) treatments accelerated the shredability of Cheddar cheese. Both MHP (345 MPa for 3 and 7 min) and higher pressure (483 MPa for 3 and 7 min) treatments applied to 1-d milled curd Cheddar cheese induced immediately a microstructure resembling that of ripened cheese. Unripened pressure-treated Cheddar cheese yielded shreds with visual and tactile sensory properties similar to those obtained from untreated 27-d-old Cheddar cheese. All pressure treatments reduced the presence of crumbles, increased mean shred particle length, improved length uniformity, and enhanced surface smoothness. Sensory evaluations showed that shredded samples of 1-d MHP-treated cheese and 27-d untreated cheese had similar sensory attributes. Pressure treatments did not affect mechanical properties of ripened cheese and milk protein proteolysis was not inhibited. These results showed that MHP would allow processors to shred milled curd Cheddar cheese immediately after block cooling with expected refrigerated storage savings of more than $30 US/1000 kg cheese and could simplify the handling of cheese for shredding. Shreds from unripened milled curd Cheddar cheese can thus be produced with high visual acceptability and improved tactile handling using moderate levels of hydrostatic pressure.