NATURAL CHEESE AND METHOD FOR MAKING NATURAL CHEESE WITH SPECIFIC TEXTURE ATTRIBUTES

The invention provides natural cheese and a method for making natural cheese with specific texture attributes. A method for accumulating milk from which to make natural cheese includes the steps: adding concentrated acidified skim milk; adding re-blended acidified skim milk; adding cream with greater than 25 % milk fat; and adding homogenized milk having between 3-18% milk fat. Further a method for producing natural cheese with a calcium reduction as compared to a standard natural cheese made without said method includes the steps: producing a calcium reduced stream by acidifying milk and by ultrafiltration to concentrate the acidified skim milk;producing a controlled homogenization stream by separating milk to produce cream and to produce homogenized high fat milk;combining the two streams; and making natural cheese from the combined streams wherein the natural cheese has a 35-50% calcium reduction as compared to a standard natural cheese made without said method.Also a method for producing natural cheese with specific texture attributes includes the steps: creating a stream of concentrated acidified milk by adding an acidulant to skim milk to reduce the milk pH and ultrafiltrating the acidified milk; creating a mineral reduced milk stream by re-blending a portion of the concentrate acidified milk with a diluent; creating a stream of cream having greater than 25% milk fat; creating a stream of one of raw milk and skim milk; creating a stream of homogenized milk having between 3-18% milk fat; combining the five streams; and making natural cheese from the combined streams.A natural cheese made from the natural cheese make process has the following characteristics: moisture 42-47 %, fat 24-35%, FDB 41-61%, salt 1.5-2.7%, pH 5.1-5.45, calcium 350 to 500 mg/100 grams of cheese and lactose