Land O'lakes, Inc.

Thomas Alexander Glenn, Iii

Clint Garoutte

Jason Thompson

Richard Dinesen

Orlando Maldonado

Kang Hu

Christina Maria Di Pietro

Food products and systems and methods for their production involve subjecting pasteurized milk to a concentration process thereby forming liquid concentrated milk, then fermenting the liquid concentrated milk to form a fermented concentrated milk product. The fermented concentrated milk product is combined with a liquid emulsifying agent, thereby forming a food product. The food product is formed without the fermented concentrated milk product and the food product reaching a temperature of 145° F.

Food products and systems and methods of making same

Dairy products are produced by subjecting a starting dairy material to nanofiltration to remove monovalent ions to produce an ion-depleted dairy permeate; passing the ion-depleted dairy permeate through an ion exchange column and subsequently with a sodium-containing eluting solution to produce sodium phosphate and sodium citrate derived from the starting material; concentrating the sodium phosphate and sodium citrate; and combining the concentrated sodium phosphate and sodium citrate with dairy components. The dairy product contains an amount of the concentrated sodium phosphate and sodium citrate sufficient to cause fat in the dairy product to be emulsified and protein in the dairy product to be hydrated. In addition or alternatively, a dairy by-product stream may be subjected to ion exchange to remove calcium therefrom; concentrated, and combined with dairy materials naturally containing phosphate and citrate in order to adjust the citrate+phosphate-to-calcium ratio to reach an emulsified dairy product.

Product and method of producing dairy products comprising dairy-derived emulsifying salts

Food products and systems and methods for their production involve microfiltration ('MF') of fluid skim to form a MF retentate, combining the MF retentate with cream and subjecting the combination to ultrafiltration ('UF') to form a UF retentate. Prior to UF, the composition is formed of non-acidified components. Following UF, the UF retentate is acidified and forms a food product including a high solids content. The solids content may be further increased using evaporation. The resulting cheese or cheese base contains a lower whey protein ratio in a fat:casein:whey protein ratio compared to systems and methods that do not employ MF.

Concentrated creams are produced from starting cream compositions characterized as homogenous, oil-in-water emulsions containing fat globules, phospholipid membrane components and non-fat solids, and which have an initial fat content between about 35 to about 55 percent by weight. To produce the concentrated creams, moisture is removed from the starting cream compositions through evaporative processing, and as a result, the concentrated cream remains in a homogenous state, retains the fat globules, phospholipid membrane components and non-fat solids, and includes a concentrated fat content of at least about 70 percent by weight. In addition, the concentrated cream may be in an oil-in-water or a bi-continuous emulsion. Evaporative processing may be through a wiped film evaporator or a scraped surface heat exchanger.

System and method for producing concentrated cream

Food products and systems and methods for their production involve subjecting pasteurized milk to a concentration process thereby forming liquid concentrated milk, then fermenting the liquid concentrated milk to form a fermented concentrated milk product. The fermented concentrated milk product is combined with a liquid emulsifying agent, thereby forming a food product. The food product is formed without the fermented concentrated milk product and the food product reaching a temperature of 145&#xb0; F.

A method of preparing a less sodium food product involves forming a reaction mixture of one or more of liquid sodium potassium hydrogen phosphate and liquid sodium dipotassium phosphate and combining a food ingredient with the emulsifying salt mixture. A reduced sodium process cheese product is formed of a sol to gel conversion fat stabilized via a hydrated protein matrix by a combination of potassium caseinate and sodium caseinate in which the caseinates are derived from an emulsifying salt mixture of liquid sodium potassium hydrogen phosphate and liquid sodium dipotassium phosphate, which, prior to reaction, accounts for at least about 2.5 and up to about 8.32 percent by weight of a total weight of the process cheese product. The emulsifying salt mixture formed of the reaction mixture remains in solution at ambient conditions for at least two weeks prior to incorporation with a food ingredient.

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Shoreview, MN, United States of America

Thomas Alexander Glenn, Iii