LOW SODIUM CHEESE-NEW DEVELOPMENTS

With sodium assuming the villainous role in human diet, attempts are continuously being made to reduce its level in thousands of processed food products marketed every where in the world. Besides national and international agencies concerned with the undesirable effect of too much salt in the diet on human health are tirelessly carrying out campaigns to educate and persuade the consumers to cut down drastically on salt consumption. Food industry in many countries are trying to lower the salt concentration in their products through research and development efforts. Though salt provides the typical taste and flavor of many foods, its reduction to low levels can hurt the sensory quality of the final products. Salt has also functional properties such as preservation, textural modification and flavor enhancement in thousands of processed products. Against such a background industry is bound to be some what reluctant to reduce salt levels that can adversely affect the characteristics of their branded products. Of all foods Cheese presents the biggest challenge for the Dairy industry in reducing salt in products like Cheddar cheese, well liked and consumed by millions regularly as a part of their diet. Recent attempts in developing low salt Cheese seem to be successful if the claims of a group of scientists in the US are to be believed. Here is a take on this interesting development. 

'Low-sodium cheddar cheeses have been marketed for decades. But they "account for only a trivial percentage of total retail sales of cheddar cheese," the National Dairy Council said in comments earlier this year to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is seeking to reduce Americans' salt consumption.  "The lack of consumer acceptance is indicated by the lack of market growth of the low-sodium cheese category," the dairy council wrote. But it's not for a lack of trying by cheese makers. "Low is hard," Schoenfuss said. Salt acts not only to flavor cheese, but to preserve and give structure to it. "Cheese is basically this biochemistry thing going on, and salt helps control that," Schoenfuss said. Under federal rules, to qualify for a "reduced sodium" claim, a cheese maker must cut sodium chloride by 25 percent. A "low-sodium" claim, rare commercially, often entails a significantly greater reduction, 55 percent in cheddar cheese. Schoenfuss' lab reduced sodium chloride in cheddar cheese by 53 percent, replacing the mineral in different trials with calcium chloride, magnesium chloride and potassium chloride. The first two were losers, leading to cheddar that was metallic-tasting and soapy. Potassium chloride, a sodium chloride replacement, can also impart a metallic or bitter flavor. But with the cheese cultures and production process Schoenfuss used - combined with the right amount of potassium chloride - the metallic flavor wasn't there.  An independent taste panel found the potassium chloride cheddar not appreciably more bitter than a control cheddar made the conventional way, Schoenfuss' lab concluded.  "Potassium chloride can be used successfully to achieve large reductions in sodium when replacing a portion of the (sodium chloride) in cheddar cheese," said a study published in the Journal of Dairy Science by Schoenfuss and four UM colleagues." 

Potassium chloride, per se does not possess the typical taste associated with common salt, Sodium Chloride but it has been tried in many products to lower the sodium levels when blends of these two salts are used in different combinations. The findings by the above group that sodium level can be reduced by 53% in Cheddar cheese with least effect on the desirable qualities of this product, are indeed noteworthy and if accepted by the Dairy industry can have significant impact on the health of populations in Europe, America, Canada, Australia etc where cheese is consumed in high quantities. One note of caution that must be kept in mind is whether such high levels of Potassium can have any adverse effect on people with high blood pressure, taking some medications regularly to control the same as there are reports that high potassium can lead to heart attacks some times in some people.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

THE "DONKEY" CHEESE-A RARE COMMODITY!

How about drinking a cup of Donkey's milk? Whether one likes it or not, its availability is a big question mark since there is no organized production of this obscure milk any where in the world. It appears that the only Donkey farm reported to be functioning in Serbia has become a captive one for serving in an exclusive restaurant chain owned by a reputed tennis player. What makes donkey milk so unique is a mystery and the cheese made from this milk commands a ridiculously high price making it beyond the reach of many customers. The only advantage donkey milk enjoys seems to be its similarity to human milk in terms of composition though it is claimed that it has 60 times the concentration of vitamin C compared to other milk varieties. Here is a take on this new product now being promoted in Serbia.

"If you were considering shelling out $500 for a pound of donkey cheese, we're sorry. The world's supply has dried up and Novak Djokovic is to blame. Djokovic, the number-one ranked singles tennis player in the world, has purchased the entire global supply of Pule, a rare cheese produced from donkey milk that can cost over $500 per pound, ABC News reports. Djokovic reportedly bought the annual output of Pule from the world's sole producer, a donkey farm 50 miles west of the Serbian capital Belgrade. Djokovic plans to use the white, crumbly cheese, which recently set the record for the world's most expensive cheese, in a chain of restaurants he's opening. The Serbian farm also produces donkey soap and bottled donkey milk, which is said to contain 60 times more vitamin C than cow's milk, according to the Daily Mail. Cleopatra was rumored to have maintained her beauty by bathing in donkey's milk, the British newspaper notes. To make Pule, farmers must milk donkeys by hand up to three times a day".

Whether donkey milk has any distinct taste or flavor is not clear but since cheese is made after precipitating the protein fraction, most flavor might have been lost in the whey fraction. Also not known is whether one can make specialty cheeses like blue vein cheese and others from this milk. One of the USPs of donkey milk is that composition wise it resembles human milk and there are reports that this was used for infant feeding in some communities during early years. Interestingly this milk has very low fat content, about 0.3 to 1.8% compared to 3.3-3.9 in cow's milk. High content of lactose makes it a more energy yielding milk and those allergic to cow milk proteins can tolerate donkey milk much better. Probably low protein content in donkey milk is the reason for the high cost as cheese yield will be significantly lower. Besides milk yield from an average donkey is no more than 0.2-0.3 liter a day to be milked three times a day adding to the cost of production. If there is a distinct advantage for donkey milk over other varieties of milk, more scientific efforts are needed to improve the quality of the animal stock through breeding.  

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

REDUCING FAT AND SALT IN CHEESE-NEW CHALLENGES

Salt and fat in the foods consumed by human beings, are two constituents which are considered to be critical in controlling many life style diseases like CVD, Blood Pressure, Kidney disorders etc and their reduction in the diet is a necessity to control further escalation of the risks to the health of consumers. These two substances present naturally in many foods. per se do not present any dangers as Nature has made sure that they are invariably present in moderate quantities in most foods but they become a risk when added to foods while processing to enhance the sensory quality to make them more appealing  and literally addictive. Realizing the dangers posed by salt to human beings, sustained campaigns are going on world over to persuade the industry to reduce salt incorporated during processing. Same is true for fat also and here the success rate in making and marketing no-fat and low fat products has been phenomenal. While most foods are amenable to efforts to reduce salt and fat without seriously affecting their organoleptic attributes seriously, Cheese is an exception in that salt and fat are the critical ingredients that decide the acceptability to the consumers.   

"Under pressure to reduce sodium and saturated fats in American diets — especially those of children — the cheese industry has tried to make products with less salt or fat that consumers will like. It has not had great success. "We've made some progress in that arena," said Gregory D. Miller, president of the Dairy Research Institute. "But we have not been able to crack the code." Dr. Miller, whose group is financed by the dairy industry, was referring to efforts to reduce salt, but he had a similar appraisal of the challenges of low-fat cheese. "When you take a lot of the fat out, essentially cheese will turn into an eraser," he said. The trouble with cheese is that salt and fat are critical components, responsible for far more of its character than consumers might think. Salt helps control moisture content and bacterial activity — the starter culture that is added to the milk and naturally occurring strains. All of them can flavor the cheese, for better or worse, as it ages. "Salt serves as a preservative, as a director of flavor development," said Mark Johnson, senior scientist with the Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "If I remove it, my flavor goes in a different direction." Fat affects moisture levels, too — less fat generally means more water, which can speed spoilage — and helps govern texture, balancing out proteins so a cheese slices properly and feels right when chewed. Because salt and fat both affect moisture, it is particularly difficult to make a product that is low in both".

Cheese is historically an American food consumed in large quantities because it costs relatively less compared to the cost of fluid milk. To a large extent lower cost of  cheese in the US is as a result of deliberate government policy to help the dairy industry which gets fluid milk for making products at practically throw away prices. Fluid milk prices therefore are raised to compensate the producers for the loss incurred due to sale of milk to the processing industry. No doubt Cheese is a highly nutritious food containing more than 30% high quality proteins but its 35% fat content makes Cheese a dangerous food too if not consumed in moderate quantities. The salt content varies from 300 mg (spreads) to 1650 mg (Roquefort) of Sodium equivalent per 100 gm and if cheese is not consumed beyond 30-50 gm a day, the salt present in cheese is unlikely to be of any consequence. The salt need of human body is placed at 5-6 gm (2-2.4 gm of sodium equivalent) a day per person. But imagine the consequences of liberal consumption of more cheese on the health. Though an average American eats about 16 kg of cheese annually, what is surprising is that cheese consumption is more than double this quantity in a country like Greece! Whether Cheese is really the culprit for host of health disorders prevalent in the US is a matter of opinion as the per capita average consumption figure is less than 50 gm a day. What is however more dangerous definitely is the saturated fat content in cheese which can be a factor in obesity development. Dairy technologists will have to double up their efforts to bring down both salt and fat in cheese products and technical problems cannot be cited as an excuse for not doing this.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

THE GREAT CHEESE STORY-WHY AMERICANS ARE OBESE!

Does any government has a role to play in deciding what its citizens must eat or what should not be eaten? This issue received a sharp focus recently when some of pro-active policies are being taken up by governments in a few countries to discourage consumption of patently unhealthy foods. Higher taxation, limiting large sized packs and more forceful labeling regulations have been the chosen routes for achieving the goal of herding the consumers to live more responsibly and avoid social burden through diseases like diabetes, CVD, obesity, cancers etc. The on-going tussle between the farming lobby and consumer interests invariably ends up in favor of the former because of close nexus between agriculture lobby and the governing political class. Here is an interesting commentary by a critic regarding the systematic blows being delivered to the consumers by the American government through some of the most idiotic policy orchestrations to oblige its farming lobbies with almost all multinational giants investing heavily on an agenda of protecting their financial flanks.   

"Also, the Golden Age of Cheese was not purely the result of individual choices. It reflects decades of pro-cheese U.S. agriculture policy. I am not making this up. The nation's cheese binge is a case study in the broader dysfunctionality of federal farm legislation, the latest iteration of which is being debated in Congress. Yes, there are real social trends at work, too. An aging population consumes less milk as fluid and more in solid form; a wealthier population can afford a richer diet, including cheesy dishes eaten at restaurants. But the country's appetite for cheese also reflects U.S. policy. Since the New Deal, Washington has tried to protect dairy farmers through price 

supports and production controls so arcane that only specialists can understand them. As a 2004 Agriculture leaving Department report explained, the net effect of dairy programs is to prop up fluid milk prices even when producers make more of it than people want to drink — plenty of excess to dump on cheese manufacturers. "Thus, consumers see lower butter and cheese prices and higher fluid milk prices than would appear in the absence of the programs," the USDA found. Not surprisingly, fluid milk consumption has stagnated while cheese consumption has grown. Of the 188.9 billion pounds of milk produced in 2008, some 82 billion were sold to cheese makers, according to the USDA. On top of those warped incentives, the Dairy Production Stabilization Act of 1983 authorized the Agriculture Department to collect a fee from all dairy farmers and turn the money over to a corporation known as Dairy Management, which promotes consumption of cheese and other dairy products".

Cheese and ice cream are two products liked universally and one of the reasons for this phenomenon in a country like the US is the ridiculously low prices at which they are offered in the market. In contrast fluid milk consumption is deliberately depressed by making it much more costlier which has the effect of stagnating consumption by those who find it increasingly difficult to buy it due to escalating prices. The twin objectives of satisfying the farmer as well as the industry are achieved by increased retail prices of milk to the consumer and supply of excess milk production to the dairy processing industry to turn out products like cheese, butter and ice cream at relatively low prices. It is the consumer who is left behind in this convoluted situation as drinking milk is progressively reduced and consumption of high calorie and high fat foods is increased putting the consumer health in jeopardy. This explains the tripling of the population that has become over weight and obese in the last 40 years and to day more than two thirds of American population are categorized as either over weight or obese! It is the unfortunate political compulsions that make the ruling class blind to the dangers of wrong and unhealthy food and environmental degradation due to pollution, global warming and other scientifically proven findings. If the US is facing frequent hot weathers, droughts, floods and similar abnormal situations to day, one must thank its government for the wrong policies being pursued by it. 

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com