J. Dairy Sci.

89:1174–1178
© American Dairy Science Association, 2006.

Major Technological Advances and Trends in Cheese

M. E. Johnson1 and J. A. Lucey
University of Wisconsin, Center for Dairy Research, Madison 53706

ABSTRACT million pounds in 2003. Larger cheese manufacturing

plants were and are being built or existing ones ex-
Over the last 25 yr, cheese production in the United panded not only to meet the demand for fermented
States has more than doubled with most of the increase dairy products but also to improve production efficiency.
due to production in the western states. Processing The largest plants have capacities that can handle in
large volumes of milk into cheese has necessitated excess of 8 million pounds of milk per day. The number
changes in vat size and design, reliance on computer of USDA-inspected cheese plants has dropped dramati-
software, and milk standardization, including use of cally (from 737 in 1980 to 399 in 2003), particularly
membrane concentration of milk either at the cheese those that were producing Cheddar, Swiss, and Mozza-
plant or on the farm. There has been increased interest rella, the so-called main commodity cheeses. However,
in specialty cheeses including cheese made from sheep, the production of Cheddar has increased from 1,751
goat, and organic milks. In addition, membrane pro- million pounds in 1980 to 2,749 million pounds in 2003.
cessing of whey into various value-added components Mozzarella showed the most dramatic increase of all
has become routine. Changes in cheese manufacturing cheeses going from 689 million pounds produced in 1980
protocols have resulted in a reduction of the manufac- to 2,806 million pounds in 2003. Indeed for a short time
turing time and the necessity for consistent and reliable in 2003, Mozzarella was even higher than Cheddar in
starter activity. Major advances in the genetics of mi- total pounds of cheese produced. Swiss cheese produc-
croorganisms have not only resulted in widespread use tion increased only by approximately 50 million pounds
of fermentation-produced chymosin but also in starter in the same period. There has been a dramatic shift
bacteria with improved resistance to bacteriophage in- in cheese production from the Midwest states to the
fection. Genomics and proteomics have increased the western states, especially California and Idaho. A new
likelihood of the development of nonstarter adjuncts cheese production facility was commissioned in 2005 in
with specific enzymatic activity. Indeed, the use of ad- Clovis, New Mexico, that is planned to process 2.4 bil-
junct microorganisms to produce cheese with a unique lion pounds of milk per year when fully operational.
flavor profile or to produce cheese with more consistent Incorporation of efficient horizontal cutting and stirring
or better quality flavor has gained almost universal ac- vats has become an industry standard for the larger or
ceptance. newer facilities. These vats have capacities of 70,000
Key words: cheese, technology, trend pounds of milk vs. the 35,000 to 50,000 pound capacities
that were common in the standard sized vats of 25
INTRODUCTION yr ago.

In the United States during the last 25 yr there has

Process Control
been a continued increase in both milk production, pro-
duction per cow, and a consolidation of dairy farms into Along with this increase in production of cheese is
larger herds. Concomitant with this growth has been an the need for better process control. Computer chip tech-
increasing per capita consumption of fermented dairy nology is being replaced by software-driven computer
products such as cheese, yogurt, and sour cream (Dairy control systems that have made it easier and faster to
Facts, 2004). The per capita natural (nonprocessed) change parameters during processing/production cy-
cheese consumption has risen from just over 17 pounds cles. This technology has also resulted in the use of
in 1980 to over 30 pounds in 2004. Total cheese produc- inline standardization of milk for cheese making, a ne-
tion rose from 3,984 million pounds from 1980 to 8,598 cessity in larger plants for economic and efficient man-
agement of resources and better process control for the
production of consistent quality cheese. In addition,
standardization of the gel strength at cutting to improve
Received September 6, 2005.
Accepted October 28, 2005. cheese yield and moisture control using in-vat sensors
1
Corresponding author: [email protected] (described by O’Callaghan and coworkers) has become

1174
 CENTENNIAL ISSUE: ADVANCES AND TRENDS IN CHEESE 1175

common practice in large operations. Although open Ultrafiltration partitions milk into an enriched protein
cheese vats are still being used for the entire cheese- and fat fraction and a serum fraction containing both
making process, especially in smaller cheese plants, the water and lactose (lactose in the serum portion fraction
popular enclosed vertical cutting and stirring vats are stays the same). Consequently, when the enriched pro-
now being rapidly replaced by redesigned enclosed hori- tein and fat fraction is added to milk for standardization
zontal cutting and stirring vats. The reason is most purposes, the protein and fat content of the milk in-
likely due to improvement in cheese yield (less fines creases but the lactose content of the serum phase re-
and fat loss due to the cutting and subsequent stirring mains the same. The cheese made from this blended
procedures) but the cutting mechanism in horizontal milk avoids the problems associated with excessive lac-
vats also allows the cheese maker to use higher solids tose. Diafiltration (adding water back to the ultrafil-
milk (concentrated milks) thereby improving productiv- tered milk followed by ultrafiltration again) has been
ity. Not surprisingly, the increase in the availability of used to standardize milk in regards to fat, casein, and
used vats has resulted in many small plants replacing lactose contents. Microfiltration of skimmed milk cre-
the open vats with the enclosed vertical cutting vats. ates a casein-enriched fraction as well as a serum pro-
tein-enriched fraction. Commercially, selected serum
Milk Standardization proteins are removed from the serum protein fraction
by ion-exchange chromatography. In some cases, the
On-farm ultrafiltration of raw milk (either skim or proteins that remain are heat denatured and added
whole milk) is now commercially viable but is practiced back to the casein-enriched fraction and the milk is used
in only a few states and is currently limited to a few very for cheese making (especially high-moisture cheeses).
large herds. Ultrafiltered whole milk is concentrated to Consequently, creative membrane processing of milk
approximately 30% total solids and ultrafiltered skim makes it possible to standardize milks to precise casein,
milk to approximately 18% total solids and shipped fat, serum protein, and lactose contents. Whether it is
to cheese makers across the United States for use in an economic viable option for all cheeses remains to
standardizing milk or supplementing existing milk sup- be seen.
plies to increase manufacturing productivity. Ultra-
filtered or microfiltered milks can currently be used for The Benefits of Microbial Genetics
cheeses without a standard of identity, but is being in Cheese Making
allowed by special permission for Cheddar, Mozzarella,
and Swiss cheese as long as its use is put on the ingredi- Cheese making in large facilities has, by necessity,
ent label. Changes to the FDA regulations are currently become a highly automated, standardized process.
being discussed that would allow the use of milk concen- However, concomitant with these changes is the neces-
trated by membrane filtration processes to be used for sity of the starter culture system to be consistent and
any cheese. dependable with respect to the rate of acid development.
Before the 1990s, there were few options to standard- The most costly problem with starters has been slow
ize milk: remove or add fat as cream, or add casein as acid development due to bacteriophage infection. Phe-
nonfat dry milk, evaporated, or condensed milks. Milk nomenal progress has been achieved in this area espe-
was generally standardized to the desired casein to fat cially through the work on the genetics of Lactococcus
ratio or at least to a desired fat level to produce a cheese spp. as initially championed by McKay (University of
with the desired solids composition. But there were Minnesota) in the 1970s and continued by Klaenham-
limitations and certain liabilities associated with add- mer (North Carolina State University) and many others
ing sources of casein. The lactose content of concen- specifically on bacteriophage resistance and host de-
trated milks was over 50% of the solids. Unless water fense mechanisms. The number of researchers, and of
was added to the concentrated milks (diluted back to course progress, in the genetics of lactic acid bacteria
the original volume), the lactose content of the serum has indeed grown exponentially in the last 2 decades.
of standardized milks made with them was higher. Add- Another driving force for studying the genetics of
ing water back was defeating one of the reasons to add lactic acid bacteria has been the desire to control the
solids—to increase productivity. Consequently, cheese development of flavor in dairy products. Much of the
makers had to make expensive adjustments in the work in cheese has been (and will continue to be) to first
make process or risk manufacturing a cheese with ex- identify specific flavor components, match the flavor
cessive acidity or a cheese that would darken with age component to a specific flavor attribute in cheese, and
or when baked. With the development of more efficient then to determine the exact chemical and metabolic
membranes in the 1990s, ultrafiltration of milk became pathways giving rise to them. Another important real-
an economically viable option as a standardization tool. ization that has occurred in the last 2 decades is that

Journal of Dairy Science Vol. 89 No. 4, 2006

1176 JOHNSON AND LUCEY

these studies must be conducted under conditions that Cheddar aged several years can be considered a spe-
actually exist in cheese. Specific environmental factors cialty cheese.
that have been identified include partitioning of re- There has been considerable improvement in the
actants and end products between serum and fat quality and awareness of US-made artisanal and farm-
phases, water activity, redox potential, and anaerobic stead cheeses made from the milks of cows, sheep, and
vs. aerobic conditions. goats or blends of these milks in addition to cheeses
Recently, the genomes of selected strains of lactic made from organic milks. These changes have resulted
acid bacteria have been characterized by Klaenhammer in a large increase in both the number of cheese varie-
(North Carolina State University) and colleagues from ties readily available in the US market and in the num-
around the world. This will facilitate more rapid and ber of producers of these cheeses. With this high level
definitive work on bacterial metabolism in dairy prod- of interest, there are a growing number of continuing
ucts, and will undoubtedly lead to better understanding education courses being offered throughout the country
of the growth of lactic acid bacteria in dairy products. on all aspects of producing the desired cheeses. Several
Eventually this information will aid in the development books have been published on cheese in the last 25 yr
of specific adjunct bacteria to manufacture consistent and the plenary example of these new books, Cheese:
desired flavor in dairy products. The use of adjunct Chemistry, Physics, and Microbiology by Fox and coau-
microorganisms, specifically yeasts and lactobacilli thors (University College, Cork, Ireland) has already
strains, has already gained acceptance as the preferred gone into its third edition since 1987. These books not
means to introduce specific flavor attributes in a variety only exemplify the dramatic increase in cheese-related
of cheeses. research but also the desire for comprehensive reviews
Genetic manipulation of selected bacteria and fungi and interpretation of the research for students and
is also being used to produce animal enzymes that are technologists alike.
now routinely used by cheese makers. Fermentation-
derived chymosin (FDC) was approved for use in cheese Cheese Chemistry and Functionality
making by the FDA in the early 1990s. It was the first
enzyme approved for food use by the FDA that used Most of the cheese produced in the United States
recombinant DNA biotechnology. It was concluded by today is either processed or used as an ingredient in
the FDA that FDC was more pure than traditional calf other foods. Cheese is now routinely manufactured to
rennet and was identical to its natural counterpart. It meet specific requirements of taste, color, melt, and
is widely used in the United States and many parts of mouth feel as demanded by the end-use application.
the world and may have up to 80% of the global market Although it was recognized that the performance of
share for rennet. Barbano and Rasmussen (Cornell Uni- cheese in these applications depends on the chemistry
versity, Ithaca, NY) verified that the yield, texture, and of the casein network, which is manipulated by control-
quality of cheese made with FDC was comparable to ling the rate and extent of acid development, it was a
that made with calf chymosin and that FDC was supe- paper by Lawrence and coworkers (New Zealand Dairy
rior in terms of yield to other coagulants. However, Research Institute) in 1984 that brought this concept
microbial rennets have undergone substantial improve- into broader appeal to cheese technologists. Indeed,
ments including reduction in their thermal stability, a since this milestone, there has been an explosion of
particularly important aspect for controlling proteolysis research focusing on the molecular chemistry of casein
and maintaining curd pliability in Swiss and Mozza- and how it relates to all characteristics of cheese. Even
rella cheeses, and reduction in nonspecific proteolysis, the holy grail of dairy chemistry, the structure of the
a key factor for improving cheese yield. casein micelle, has been “remodeled” by Horne (Hannah
Research Institute, Scotland) and has been used by
Specialty Cheese Lucey and coauthors (University of Wisconsin) as a
basis for explaining the rheological properties of cheese.
In contrast to the decrease in the number of cheese Concomitant with research on casein chemistry and
plants producing commodity cheeses, there has been a cheese rheology were advances in standardizing the
steady increase in the number of cheese plants produc- terminology used to describe physical properties of
ing what are (or were) called specialty cheeses; that is, cheese (IDF, 1991), improving methods to quantify the
mold-ripened cheese, Havarti, Italian varieties, Gouda, proportions of soluble and insoluble phases of calcium
Feta, Latin American, flavored, washed, or smear-rip- (Hassan and coworkers, University of Wisconsin), and
ened cheeses, and lower fat versions of many varieties improvements in functionality testing as described by
of cheese. The gray area between what is a specialty Guinee and coworkers (Dairy Products Research Cen-
or commodity cheese is often blurred; for example, ter, Teagasc, Moorepark, Ireland).

Journal of Dairy Science Vol. 89 No. 4, 2006

 CENTENNIAL ISSUE: ADVANCES AND TRENDS IN CHEESE 1177

Cheese Microbiology and Safety ticularly spore formers from whey and milk (especially
in Europe for certain types of cheeses to avoid the need
Illnesses and even deaths associated with the con-
for nitrate addition, and in Canada for increasing the
sumption of cheese contaminated with Listeria monocy-
shelf life of pasteurized milk).
togenes galvanized the entire industry from suppliers to
end-users and opened up a new vigilance for pathogen
testing and awareness of the dairy plant environment CONCLUSIONS
as a source of contamination. There are now more rapid It may be humbling to researchers and technologists,
and precise methods of identification of several emerg- but with all the excellent research on casein chemistry
ing pathogens such as Campylobacter and Escherichia and cheese functionality carried out over the last 25
coli O157:H7. The industry has taken a proactive rather yr, the key manufacturing principles and protocols to
than reactive approach and has taken very seriously produce the desired cheese and avoid undesirable attri-
the establishment as of as-yet voluntary Hazard Analy- butes have remained the same as they have been for
sis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) programs. many decades; that is, use proper manufacturing prac-
There is renewed interest and progress in developing tices, use high quality milk of consistent composition
bacteriocin-producing starters or adjunct cultures to from healthy cows that is low in bacterial numbers,
aid in the inhibition of contaminating bacteria. Use of
make cheese of consistent composition, control the rate
natamycin to prevent mold growth on the surface of
and extent of acid development at specific manufactur-
cheese, specifically shredded cheese, has become rou-
ing steps to produce cheese with the desired physical
tine practice
attributes, prevent contamination of undesirable micro-
organisms, and avoid temperature and light abuse dur-
Whey ing storage and distribution.
Due to economic and environmental pressures, most In the future, the use of genomics and proteomics
cheese manufacturing plants must now develop pro- will play a major role in understanding the dynamic
cesses to recover all solids of the milk. Three decades biochemical and microbiological reactions in cheese.
ago it was said that someday cheese would become the There will be greater understanding of the molecular
by-product of producing whey. For some (especially in interactions that determine cheese texture and func-
the large cheese plants), that day has arrived. The ma- tionality. The types of cheeses that will be required
jor advances in economically processing milk and whey to perform as highly functional food ingredients will
into various components have been in the use of mem- continue to increase. Greater process control of compo-
brane processing, particularly reverse osmosis, ultra- sition and textural attributes will be possible and this
filtration, microfiltration, and ion-exchange technology will facilitate improved consistency of cheese products.
(IDF, 2004). Of course, hand in hand with new or im- A challenge to the cheese industry will be the competi-
proved products derived from whey is the enhanced tion with plant-derived “dairy substitutes”. Already we
knowledge of their functional properties, which have see cheese-like and other “dairy” products being devel-
enabled their incorporation into more food products, oped that replace milk solids with nondairy ingredients.
including beverages. Membrane processing systems However, even with this competition there will continue
allow the separation of milk and whey components into to be a strong demand for “traditional” cheeses.
various fractions. The vision of Maubois (Institute Na-
tional de la Recherche, Rennes, France) is now a com- REFERENCES
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Journal of Dairy Science Vol. 89 No. 4, 2006