By DuPont Danisco

DuPont research has created a rare opportunity for quark and other fresh cheese manufacturers to boost their capacity without increasing their milk consumption or investing in extra equipment. New Choozit Fresh starter cultures have the ability to extract up to 4 percent more curd from milk than other cultures. At a facility with a weekly milk consumption of 3 million kilos, that can add an extra 16.5 metric tonnes to the fresh cheese volume produced – at no extra cost to the manufacturer.

Most importantly, the fresh cheese product has a clean, fresh flavour profile and is prone to minimal post-acidification. Choozit Fresh cultures are pH stable and robust toward bacterial attack, and have a comparable, even slightly faster, fermentation time to conventional starter cultures. Designed for direct inoculation in the cheese vat, they also are easy to use.

The range is the fruitful outcome of a DuPont research project aimed at relieving the severe price pressures on fresh cheese manufacturers by optimizing their raw material usage.
With up to four liters of milk required to produce one kilo of quark, the vast quantities of acid whey waste were an obvious research target. Particularly the level of non protein nitrogen in the acid whey caught the attention of the research team.

“We found that the non protein nitrogen was the result of protein loss from the milk, caused by the high protein-degrading enzyme activity of the starter cultures, especially bulk starters, during fermentation,” said Annie Mornet, global product manager, Choozit, DuPont Nutrition & Health. “This protein loss has a direct negative impact on the dry matter content of the curd, reducing final product yield.”

The Choozit Fresh range is the product of the major screening process initiated by DuPont to identify culture strains with low enzyme activity. By maintaining the integrity of milk proteins, the cultures secure a valuable cost optimization opportunity for fresh cheese manufacturers.
“Our industrial trials have demonstrated excellent results with Choozit Fresh. These also have been confirmed by an independent research institute,” said Mornet.

Choozit Fresh is the latest addition to the extensive Choozit Cheese Culture portfolio, part of the DuPont Danisco range.