Invited review: Crystals in cheese: More than a curiosity.

Scientific interest in cheese crystals extends back more than a century. However, starting around the 1970s, industry interest, and interest on the part of cheese scientists, grew dramatically as changes in cheesemaking technology and market changes caused the presence of crystals in the marketplace to increase; advanced analytical capabilities enabled new crystalline species to be identified, their origins and causative factors to be elucidated, and their contributions to cheese texture to be better understood. It is now evident that a host of organic- and inorganic-based crystals occur in natural cheeses.

Symposium review: The Mozzarella/pasta filata years: A tribute to David M. Barbano.

In the decades that followed the end of World War II, Mozzarella cheesemaking in the United States grew steadily as the pizza restaurant established an ever-expanding footprint across America and beyond. By the 1980s, Mozzarella cheesemaking had attained unprecedented scales of production, yet even as new cheese plants were coming on line across the country and production capacities were reaching extraordinary levels, the scientific and technological knowledge base needed to standardize production schedules, control product quality, and maximize cheese yields and efficiency lagged far behind industry needs. It was within this historical context that David Barbano turned his systematic and meticulous research program toward the needs of the Mozzarella cheese industry during the 1980s.

Size, shape, and identity of surface crystals and their relationship to sensory perception of grittiness in soft smear-ripened cheeses.

Soft smear-ripened cheeses undergo extensive surface crystallization and radial demineralization of calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus, which likely contributes to radial softening during ripening. Furthermore, anecdotal evidence suggests that grittiness is a common characteristic of smear-ripened cheeses. The primary aims of the present study were to evaluate the intensity of perceived grittiness while assessing other key sensory attributes in US artisanal and European protected designation of origin smear-ripened cheeses, and to relate perceived grittiness to the size, shape, and identity of crystals present in the cheese surface smears.

Characterization and identification of surface crystals on smear-ripened cheese by polarized light microscopy.

Surface crystallization and radial demineralization of Ca, P, and Mg occur in smear-ripened cheese. Furthermore, crystals of ikaite, struvite, calcite, and brushite have been identified in cheese smears by powder X-ray diffractometry (PXRD), and ikaite and struvite exist in smears as single crystals. Polarized light microscopy (PLM) is a simple, inexpensive, and well-established method in geology to detect and identify single crystals.

Crystallization and demineralization phenomena in washed-rind cheese.

This report documents an observational study of a high-moisture washed-rind cheese. Three batches of cheese were sampled on a weekly basis for 6 wk and again at wk 10. Center, under-rind, rind, and smear samples were tested for pH, moisture, and selected mineral elements.