What is processed cheese?
Processed cheese is typically a blend of fresh and aged cheeses combined with added colorings, preservatives, and emulsifiers (for smoothness and ease of melting). Pasteurised to stop the ripening process, processed cheese has a longer shelf life, but definitely lacks the distinctive flavour and texture of natural cheese.
Is this the most popular cheese consumers’ purchase? Processed cheese is a dairy product created from the mixing and heating of several lots of natural cheese, with suitable emulsifying agents, into a homogeneous plastic mass. It may contain fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices. Cheese is processed for uniformity, safety and longer keeping quality and easier merchandizing. Good processed cheese has a smooth and compact body, devoid of fermentative gas holes and has a uniform color. This type of cheese could be sliced with out crumbling or sticking. It melts well and this makes it great for cooking. Processed cheese may be defined as a modified form of natural cheese prepared with the aid of heat, by comminuting and blending one or more lots of cheese tether. There are a few exceptions, these include, cream cheese and cottage cheese. As per the PFA rules released in 1976, processed cheese refers to a product obtained by heating cheese with permitted emulsifiers and / or stabilizers, viz
