Engineering the rheological and nutritional properties of processed cheese: a deterministic particle-filled network approach

我们已经认识到，在许多加工食品中都有一个共同的结构“主题”。食物系统中的一种或多种成分是分散的，而不是连续的。例如，奶酪可以被认为是由牛奶蛋白（尤其是酪蛋白）组成的充满脂肪颗粒的网络。法兰克福香肠和许多粉碎的肉制品可以被认为是充满脂肪颗粒的肌原纤维（肉）蛋白网络。巧克力可以被认为是糖和可可粉填充的脂肪晶体网络，等等。然而，这种理解目前还不存在，处理软的和充满水合粒子的网络的模型还不存在，或者不能正确地描述系统。在这里，我们建议发展这样的理解，特别是对奶酪和肉凝胶。我们发现，添加不同性质的颗粒（玻璃、蜡、糖、钻石、纤维素）会对肉类和巧克力的机械性能产生深远的影响。通常，加入颗粒后机械强度提高，在湿体系中，水结合性增强。在这里，我们建议开发颗粒填充的加工奶酪，以便能够在不影响质地和消费者接受度的情况下减少饱和脂肪的含量。然后，奶酪中的乳脂和肉凝胶中的动物脂肪可以部分地用多不饱和油代替，同时仍然保持其质地特性，这将抵消添加液体油引起的软化作用。这将改善这些加工食品的营养特性，并降低它们的成本，因为乳脂比植物油贵5倍。此外，考虑到颗粒的化学性质、粒度分布、硬度和掺入水平，我们还将大力参与理论发展，以描述颗粒添加对水合和干燥软材料的影响。这将为通过添加目标数量的特定颗粒来改造食品材料的特性和功能开辟可能性。还将生成颗粒和颗粒特性库，以帮助工业界选择可行的策略，对食品进行功能改性，以满足特定的营养、经济或质地需求。

We have come to the realization that there is a common structural "theme" in many manufactured foodproducts. One, or more components in food systems exist as a dispersion rather than as a continuous phase.Cheese, for example, can be considered as a fat particle-filled network composed of milk proteins (caseins inparticular). Frankfurters and many comminuted meat products can be considered a fat particle-filled networkof myofibrillar (meat) proteins. Chocolate can be considered as a sugar and cocoa powder-filled network of fatcrystals, and so on. However, this understanding does not exist yet and models that address soft and hydratedparticle-filled networks do not exist, or do not describe the system properly. Here we propose to develop suchunderstanding, particularly for cheese and meat gels. We have found that addition of particles of differentnatures (glass, wax, sugar, diamond, cellulose) can have a profound effect on the mechanical properties of meatand chocolate. Usually, mechanical strength is enhanced upon particle addition and in wet system, waterbinding is enhanced. Here we propose to develop particle-filled processed cheese so as to be able to reduce theamount of saturated fat present without affecting texture and thus consumer acceptability. Milkfat in cheese,and animal fat in meat gels could then be partially substituted with polyunsaturated oils, while still preservingtextural properties, which would counteract the softening effect induced by liquid oil addition. This willimprove the nutritional properties of these manufactured food products as well reduce their cost since milkfat is5x more expensive than vegetable oils. Moreover, we will also be heavily involved in theory development forthe description of the effects of particle addition to hydrated and dry soft materials, in consideration of particlechemical nature, size distribution, hardness and incorporation level. This will open up the possibility for theengineering of food material properties and functionality by addition of targeted amounts of specific particles.A library of particles and particle properties will also be generated to aid industry in choosing a viable strategyfor functional modification of food products that meets specific nutritional, economic or textural needs.