Background/Requirement
Process Cheese is a cheese product made by blending various
natural cheeses in the presence of heat and emulsifying salts.
Process Cheese delivers fairly uniform flavor and texture
which are uncontrollable variables in natural cheese. Process
cheese is manufactured by macerating selected cheeses and
transferring them to a cooking vessel where emulsifying salts
are added to prevent separation of the fat during heat processing.
Other ingredients such as salt, preservatives, cream, dry
milk and whey may be added as desired. The mixture is heated
to 74-82°C. The product is then packaged.
An international cheese manufacturer approached Quadro to
find a solution to problems they encountered when adding reclaimed
cheese to their cheese manufacturing process. Adding the reclaim
cheese results in enormous savings in raw material costs,
however, there were particles ranging in size from 1/8" to
1/2" that were not properly blended in the mix vessel. These
particles were noticeable in the end product.
Quadro's
Approach
Quadro recommended a Z Emulsifier to eliminate all
the impurities in the end product. The process cheese
mix is prepared in horizontal blend tanks. Following
the mixing process the blend is transferred via a twin
auger feeder to a positive displacement pump which feeds
the Z Emulsifier prior to the cooker to ensure all dry
or hardened particles are eliminated in order to create
a smooth blend. Following the cooker, the cheese is
packaged.
Summary
Quadro Ytron Z Emulsifiers are built to house
up to 3 rotor/stator sets with extremely fine radial
tolerances. The rotors and stators themselves are made
with different slot widths offering the user the ultimate
in flexibility and multi-product usage. Product enters
the Z Emulsifier housing axially and must pass through
1 to 3 sets of rotor/stator elements before exiting.
With no recirculation of product, a controlled, high
intensity shearing is delivered equally to all fluid
elements irrespective of product characteristics. The
shear rate is dependent only upon the rotor tip speed
and the rotor/stator tooling selection.
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