Cream Cheese Case Study

The product chosen is cream cheese from dairy based company. In this case, cream cheese is a type of soft, spreadable texture, and mildly acidic soft cheese that made from the mixture of milk and fat. It is usually manufactured by the coagulation of cream or mixture of milk and cream by acidification with starter culture and is ready for consumption after the manufacturing process is complete (Guinee et al., 1993). The general processing line for cream cheese is shown as below:

The process is started with the mixing of raw milk and cream at certain ratio until the percentage of milk fat on a water-free basis is more than 65%. Then, the mixture is homogenised by using homogenizer to break down fat molecules in milk so that they resist separation.

As whey is removed, the resulting mix is known as curd. The hot curd is cooled down to 10-20ºC, following by the addition of salt (0.5-1%) and stabilizer (not more than 0.5%). Heat is applied until the temperature of curd with salt and stabilizers is increased to 70-85ºC in a mixing tank. This heating process is crucial to get a good mixture and texture of the product. The hot curd is then pumped to the packaging device and packed while hot. The resulting product is cream cheese that blends beautifully with a wide range of sweet and savoury flavours. Generally, unopened cream cheese may be stored for up to 12 months at chilled condition (Phadungath,

Therefore, stainless steel will be the most preferred choice of food contact surface in cream cheese processing. Generally, stainless steel is resistant to corrosion, high strength and hardness, easy to clean and relatively low cost (Schmidt, et al, 2012). This is suitable to be incorporated in food factory as food contact surface because it is resistant to corrosion and contamination which is highly prohibited in food processing. In this case, it is recommended to use the non-magnetic stainless-steel type 304 as food contact surface because it is more corrosion resistant with enough strength (Schmidt, et al, 2012).

It is very important to get rid of food soils so that they can be removed for effective cleaning. Removal of soil from a surface takes three steps. First, soil must be separated from the surface. Second, the soil must be dispersed into the cleaning solution. Lastly, soil must not be allowed to reattach to the surface (Curtis, 2006). In this case, different cleaning agents or detergents will be required in removing different types of food soil. In another word, the type of food soil will determine which cleaning agent that can be used most