Composition of mozzarella cheese wheys : Relations with problems occuring during concentration, lactose crystallization and spray drying
Résumé
Mozzarella cheese, especially its low-moisture part skim form, better known as pizza cheese, achieved a spectacular growth over the last decades, becoming even a challenger of cheddar in the United States. Such a growth in a cheese production generates unavoidably great amounts of whey that has to be transformed. This usually involves spray drying, subsequently to concentration and lactose crystallization. In the case of mozzarella wheys these steps are often problematic. The aim of this study is to better understand the origin(s) of these problems, which are probably due to the interactions of water with several hygroscopic components of these wheys, remaining still to discover. A first approach was to do a review of the literature concerning mozzarella cheesemaking and whey composition, and spray drying of whey. In a second time, we studied the composition of different mozzarella wheys in order to find which components could be at the root of the problems occurring during water elimination in these wheys. Typical composition of lactic mozzarella whey is presented, and compared to the composition of other wheys (hard type cheese and soft cheese). The results indicate that mozzarella whey is intermediate between these two extremes and hypotheses are made between mineral, sugar and acid composition and difficulties in water removal.