Kraft Foods Holdings, Inc.

Kraft Foods, Inc.

Intercontinental Great Brands LLC

Richard Harold Lincourt

Xiao-Qing Han

Wen-Sherng Chen

Alice Shen Cha

Richard S Silver

Daniel G Lis

Linda K Jackson

Song Gao

Joseph Michael Schuerman

Jochen Klaus Pfeifer

Jochen Pfeifer

Kirk L Parkin

Ragendra P Borwankar

Xiao-Cing Han

Maria Lucrecia Cardona

David John Barnard

The current invention provides an improved process for making a cheese product using transglutaminase. The method comprises the steps of providing a dairy liquid, crosslinking and curding the dairy liquid by adding an acidifying agent and a transglutaminase to the dairy liquid under conditions sufficient to crosslink at least a portion of proteins in the dairy liquid to provide both a curd comprising a crosslinked dairy liquid and a liquid whey, cutting and cooking the curd, separating the curd from the liquid whey, and collecting the curd. Many specific embodiments are provided. Additionally, the current invention provides a product made by the process. The cheese products, especially soft cheeses such cream cheese and cottage cheese, exhibit less syneresis than similar cheeses prepared by conventional methods.

Process for making a cheese product using transglutaminase

The current invention provides antioxidative peptide fractions. The invention includes antioxidative peptides of casein having sequences of SEQ ID NOS:1-5. The invention includes methods for making or generating the peptides, isolated nucleic acids encoding the peptides, and expression. vectors comprising these nucleic acids. The invention includes food additives for preventing oxidation in situ. The invention includes stabilized products with improved storage for products ingredients that are subject to oxidation. Finally, the invention includes methods for isolating peptide fractions having antioxidative activity from protein samples.

Isolated antioxidant peptides form casein and methods for preparing, isolating, and identifying antioxidant peptides

The present invention is directed to cottage cheese having a more porous curd. The resulting curd is less dense than conventional cottage cheese curd. The more porous cottage cheese curd allows the cottage cheese dressing to permeate the curd. The porous cottage cheese curds formed according to the present invention allow greater absorption of the dressing, and thus significantly reduce the problem involving the curds &ldquo;swimming&rdquo; in the dressing often found in conventional cottage cheese products. Methods for manufacturing such cottage cheese also are provided. More specifically, the porous cottage cheese curd is prepared by the generation or introduction of gas during the initial formation of the curd.

Cottage cheese having porous curd

A method for preparing cheeses, preferably natural cheeses, containing significant levels of soy protein is provided. The process uses enzymes (preferably proteinase) to treat the soy ingredients and to form soy protein hydrolyzates. The enzyme-treated soy ingredients are complexable with casein micelles. After a heat treatment step to deactivate the enzymes, the soy protein hydrolyzate is added to a milk substrate which is then clotted, preferably using conventional rennet, to form curds and whey. After separating the curds and whey, the curd is converted to cheese using conventional cheese-making procedures. Without the initial enzyme treatment, the intact soy ingredients would interfere with milk clotting, thereby preventing the formation of a normal cheese curd. The partially hydrolyzated soy protein used in the present invention does not significantly interfere with milk clotting mechanisms. Cheeses containing up to about 30 percent soy ingredients can be obtained.

Incorporation of soy proteins in 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

The present invention provides a wheyless process for preparing natural mozzarella cheese using dry dairy ingredients. This process enables the manufacture of cheese from non-perishable or shelf-stable ingredients such as dried milk protein concentrate and anhydrous milkfat. This enables greater flexibility in the location of cheese manufacturing facilities as handling and/or transporting large quantities of fresh milk is not required. Also, in utilizing such a process, the need for refrigerated storage of the fresh milk would be minimal. The dry dairy ingredients used in the present invention comprise milk protein concentrates and blends of milk protein concentrates with up to about 50 percent of a second dry dairy ingredient selected from the group consisting of whey protein concentrate, whey protein isolate, calcium caseinate, sodium caseinate, rennet casein, acid casein, nonfat dry milk, and mixtures thereof.

Wheyless process for production of natural mozzarella cheese

The present invention relates to a cheese-like dairy gel that includes a gum, a starch, and a dairy liquid, wherein the gel has the texture, consistency, and mouthfeel of a cheese. In particular embodiments of the dairy gel, it is essentially fat-free, and is chosen from among cottage cheese, ricotta, cream cheese, American cheese, processed cheese, Parmesan cheese, baker's cheese, cheddar, and Feta cheese. The gum may be an ionically neutral gum, such as konjac, or a microbial gum, gellan gum, or it may be an anionic gum, such as a carrageenan, Kappa-carrageenan, furcelleran, agar, alginate, and the like, or mixtures thereof. The starch, in certain embodiments of the invention, may be potato starch, tapioca starch, corn starch, rice starch, wheat starch, and the like, or mixtures thereof. The invention additionally provides a process for preparing a cheese-like dairy gel wherein the ingredients are blended, briefly heated, packaged, and cooled, or it may be cooled and extruded, sliced, diced, or shredded, then packaged. The invention avoids renneting, fermenting, or acidification that yields curds and whey liquid. It thus provides a simplified process and product which utilizes all the ingredients of the dairy liquid employed.

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Mundelein, IL, United States of America

Richard Harold Lincourt