Kraft Foods Holdings, Inc.

Kraft Foods, Inc.

Jochen Klaus Pfeifer

Xiao-Qing Han

Bruce Edward Campbell

Richard Harold Lincourt

Mark Kijowski

Clinton Kent

William Zaikos

Christopher Burl Smith

Rashad Bahrani

Tim Nellenback

Joy Lee

Rashida Uchefuna Byrd

Joy Elaine Lee

Rashida Byrd

The present invention provides processes for making a stable cheese product supplemented with functionally enhanced whey protein. In a preferred embodiment of these methods, the cheese product is cream cheese. The added whey protein is functionally enhanced by exposing cheese curds or dairy liquids containing the whey protein to controlled heat treatment and/or treatment at high shear rates. The invention further provides a stable cheese product that is characteristic of a particular variety of cheese and that is supplemented with functionally enhanced whey protein. In a preferred embodiment, the supplemented cheese product is cream cheese.

Process for incorporating whey protein into cheese

The current invention includes a process for making cream cheese wherein nutrients typically lost as whey during processing are utilized in the final cream cheese; the resulting cream cheese has the body, texture, and taste of conventional cream cheese. The process of the current invention utilizes acidifying and cross-linking steps to process a dairy liquid into a wheyless cream cheese by utilizing the protein cross-linking activity of transglutaminase. The wheyless cream cheese does not require the addition of stabilizers and/or emulsifiers. Furthermore, the cream cheese that is formed is firmer than typical cream cheese and has significantly reduced syneresis.

Process for making a wheyless cream cheese using transglutaminase

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Evanston, IL, United States of America

Jochen Klaus Pfeifer