Cheesemaking Properties of Milk and Cheese Yield: Risk Assessment

Cheese milk profile affects the economic efficiency of cheese production. Cheesemaking properties of milk largely depend on the content and ratio of protein fractions, namely, caseins and whey proteins. However, very few scientific publications feature quantitative criteria that can be used to assess the suitability of milk for cheese production and forecast cheese yield. This article describes the quantitative correlation between the contents of casein and whey protein in raw cow’s milk and the resulting cheese yield. It also establishes threshold values for protein fractions in cheese production. The study involved 100 milk samples processed in an experimental semi-hard cheese workshop. Analysis of the protein composition showed a strong positive correlation between casein content and cheese yield. Conversely, cheese yield negatively correlated with both the fraction of whey proteins (r = –0.884) and their share in total protein (r = –0.932). As the casein fraction increased from 77.1 to 84.5%, the cheese yield rose from 9.7 to 11.6%, showing a commercially significant difference of 1.9%. Therefore, the casein content in cheese milk should exceed 80% of the total protein, with an initial total protein content above 3.0%.