System and method for producing a non-dairy cheese product

Abstract

A method of producing a non-dairy cheese includes fermenting non-dairy milk with lactic acid bacteria and mixing the fermented non-dairy milk with dry ingredients. The dry ingredients include one or more gums and one or more starches. The method further includes heating the fermented non-dairy milk and dry ingredients to 180 degrees and mixing oil into the fermented non-dairy milk in an in-line high shear mixer creating an oil/non-dairy milk mixture. The method further includes circulating the oil/non-dairy milk mixture through the inline high shear mixer until the droplet size of the oil in the non-dairy milk is 15 micrometers or less, removing air from the oil/non-dairy milk mixture, and packaging the oil/non-dairy milk mixture to yield a non-dairy cheese product.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.