Cheese sauce
AssigneeLand O'Lakes, Inc.
InventorsNathan Burke, Ravin Gnanasambandam, Hasmukh Patel
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Cheese sauce products including phospholipid emulsifiers exhibit delayed, reduced or eliminated formation of a surface film upon prolonged exposure to air. The cheese sauce products include a cheese composition that is non-solid at room temperature, a liquid, and a phospholipid emulsifier composition. The cheese sauce products are “clean label” due to the absence of disodium and/or trisodium phosphates therein. Methods of preventing the formation of a surface film on a cheese sauce product involve mixing a cheese sauce composition with a liquid to form a cheese sauce, and admixing a phospholipid emulsifier composition to the cheese sauce. The phospholipid emulsifier composition constitutes about 0.5 wt % to about 5 wt % of the cheese sauce product.
Claims19
A cheese sauce product that is non-solid at room temperature, comprising:
- one or more cheeses comprising about 25 wt % to about 70 wt % of the cheese sauce product;
- a liquid;
- and
- a phospholipid composition, wherein a total phospholipid concentration of the cheese sauce product is about 0.025 wt % to about 2 wt %,
- wherein the phospholipid composition is dairy-derived,
- wherein the cheese sauce product excludes phosphates, phosphate-based components, buttermilk powder, monoglycerides and diglycerides, and
- wherein the phospholipid composition eliminates formation of a surface film on the cheese sauce product for at least about 15 minutes to 2 hours after exposure of the cheese sauce product to air.
A method of preventing the formation of a surface film on a cheese sauce product, the method comprising:
- mixing a cheese composition that is non-solid at room temperature with a liquid to form a cheese sauce;
- admixing a phospholipid composition that is dairy-derived;
- heating the admixture in at least one initial cooking step to an initial cooking temperature of up to about 75° C.;
- after each of the at least one initial cooking step, cooling the admixture to a temperature below the initial cooking temperature but at or above about 20° C.;
- and
- after completion of all of the at least one initial cooking step and the corresponding cooling step, heating the admixture in an additional cooking step to a cooking temperature of about 85° C. to about 110° C. to form the cheese sauce product,
- wherein the cheese sauce product comprises a total phospholipid content of about 0.025 wt % to about 2 wt %,
- wherein the cheese sauce product excludes phosphates, phosphate-based components, buttermilk powder, monoglycerides and diglycerides, and
- wherein the phospholipid composition prevents formation of a surface film after exposure of the cheese sauce product to air.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.