The international patent application, filed by Arras-based Ingredia in May 2014, details a method for producing spreadable cheese from powdered dairy protein concentrates, fat, and water.
"The invention relates to a method for producing a cheese which is spreadable and/or becomes stringy when cooked, said cheese being produced from powdered dairy protein concentrates," the patent application reads.
Spreadable cheese typically liquefies when subjected to heat.
Ingredia claims its invention - devised by Celine Lesur, David Franck, and Jean Jacques Snappe - produces spreadable cheese that when heated has stringy characteristics "similar to those obtained by traditional cheese."
The invention "relates in particular" to low-moisture mozzarella, a semi-hard cheese that is "suitable for grating."
Low-moisture mozzarella, which is not be confused with liquid-packed, high-moisture mozzarella, is used widely as a pizza cheese.
As detailed by Ingredia, the patent-pending process starts with the addition of water, fat, and powdered dairy protein concentrates to a mixer.
The mix is blended at 1,500 revolutions per minute at a temperature of between 35 degrees Celsius and 60 degrees Celsius "so as to emulsify and homogenize said composition."
It is then cooled at a temperature of between 35 degrees Celsius and 55 degrees Celsius.
The cooled mixed then goes through a coagulation stage, when it is transformed from a liquid into a thickened mass.
The resulting mass then textured and molded.
The invention also "provides a method for manufacturing a cheese without a whey separation step," the company claims.
Source: WPO Publication No: WO/2014/188123
Published: 27/11/14 Filed: 21/05/14
Title: Method for producing a cheese and cheese produced.
Authors: Celine Lebur, Franck David, Jean Jacques Snappe.