Scientists from Cornell University have discovered a new process to give cheddar its consumer-pleasing orange colour without staining whey. The method creates no waste when squeezing out the watery whey, while preserving its natural colour for other commercial uses. Cheddar cheese’s hint of orange often comes from the South America-grown red annatto seed. Adding the seed’s colour to milk during the cheese-making process turns the mixture orange or deep yellow. Currently, when the curds form, cheese processors are left with an orange whey, the liquid part of milk, which is a valuable protein source. But as an additive to other foods, it’s not commercially viable because of its colour. Alireza Abbaspourrad, of the department of food science at Cornell University, said: “As whey drains, it still contains a lot of lactose, protein and minerals, which can be a valuable additive when it is spray dried. “Food companies can use the powder to add to food products, like infant formula or weight-training drinks, for example. But no one wants to use orange colour whey.” Abbaspourrad’s group has created an annatto-infused microcapsule – coated with a natural shell of casein, and a layer of fat – that when added to milk befriends the curd and leaves the liquid whey alone. Inside the curd, microcapsules open during the cheese-ageing process. As curds mature, the fat layer is degraded by enzymes that naturally dissolve and release reddish annatto to colour the curds. “There’s nothing artificial, it’s all natural, it’s all green,” said Abbaspourrad. “The microcapsule shell’s composition is controllable, tuneable and it can be optimised to use with other enzymes in other food systems or other media.” Abbaspourrad and co-author doctoral student Raheleh Ravanfar have filed a provisional patent for the enzymatically-triggered microcapsules as a novel method to selectively deliver colour to cheddar cheese and obtain white whey powder.
Researchers from Cornell University have developed a natural method of tinting cheddar cheese without also colouring the whey. The team added an annatto-infused microcapsule to milk, which sticks to the curds, then opens as the cheese ripens, releasing the natural colour. In their study, published in Nature Communications, they found that adding this substance made it easier for milk producers to produce high-quality cheese.