What does cheese mean (cheese slice Baidu Encyclopedia)

Cheese is a transliteration of English cheese. The standard Chinese name is "cheese" or "cheese", also known as "cheese". The marketing copy of many cheese manufacturers claims that a catty of cheese is made of 10 catty of milk, so cheese can be called "milk gold". Cheese slices are flaky products made of cheese, which are convenient to eat and taste better. However, some people say that there are many other ingredients in the cheese slices, which are not real cheese, or even junk food.

What is the relationship between cheese slices and milk? Can we give the children slices of cheese or not? Popular science writer Yun Wuxin's teacher is at

He who knows food is a hero: the unintentional food science.

In this paper, an easy-to-understand answer is given.

From milk to cheese

The relationship between cheese and milk is a bit like tofu and soybean milk. Milk contains about 3% protein, 4% fat, 5% lactose and some micronutrients, and the rest is water.

About 80% of milk protein is casein.

Their structure is very special, some like water, some don't like water. In a normal state, the hydrophobic ends rush together and the hydrophilic ends rush out, forming protein colloidal particles. The surfaces of protein colloidal particles are hydrophilic, and the charges on the surfaces repel each other, so protein colloidal particles can stay in water stably and evenly. The fat in milk is wrapped by casein into small particles, which are equally dispersed in water as protein colloidal particles. Other solid components in milk can live in peace with water, which forms a uniform liquid.

If the acidity of milk is increased, the charges between protein colloidal particles will disappear, and they will get close to each other and finally become solid. In addition, there is a kind of protein called chymosin. Adding it to milk will cut the hydrophilic and hydrophobic ends of casein. Those hydrophobic groups don't like water, so they get together and eventually become solids and separate from milk.

The solid component thus precipitated is cheese. Most of the fat also ran into the cheese with the precipitation of protein. Calcium in milk is inseparable from protein, and it basically follows into cheese. In other words, the main nutrients we hope to get from milk—

Protein and calcium are indeed concentrated in cheese.

All kinds of cheese

If cheese is made only by increasing the acidity of milk, such as fermentation or adding acid directly, the cheese obtained in this way has a high water content, just like tofu brain, and is called "fresh cheese". It is a bit like yogurt, but it has a higher solid content than yogurt.

If you use fermentation and chymosin to make cheese at the same time, the solid content of the cheese will be higher, and the water content will be about half. This kind of cheese is usually called "soft cheese".

If only chymosin is used, the cheese will be squeezed by external force after it is separated out, and the obtained cheese will have lower water content and harder texture. This kind of cheese is called "hard cheese". If soft cheese is like tofu, then hard cheese is like dried tofu.

Fresh cheese, soft cheese and hard cheese can all be regarded as milk concentrate.

Their nutritional composition is not exactly the same as that of milk: whey protein and lactose in milk are mostly removed with whey; Some of the remaining lactose in fresh cheese and soft cheese is converted into lactic acid by fermentation. The protein and calcium we need are mainly concentrated in cheese, so it is ok to call cheese "concentrated milk"-1kg of hard cheese really needs more than1kg of milk to make.

However, the shape and taste of these natural cheeses are not so attractive. In order to improve the taste, people melt them, add other ingredients and solidify them. This kind of cheese is called "processed cheese". According to the standard of China, as long as the cheese content in cheese products exceeds 15%, it can be called "processed cheese". That is to say,

Cheese products manufacturers have up to 85% operating space, and other ingredients can be added to improve flavor, taste, shape and shelf life.

Is cheese slice worth eating?

It is difficult to make natural cheese into the perfect shape like cheese slices, so cheese slices in the market are generally processed cheese. The raw material of natural cheese is only milk. Although the cheese obtained by different processes is somewhat different, the nutritional difference is not particularly great.

As cheese slices of processed cheese, only cheese containing 15% is needed.

-The names are all called cheese slices, but the contents may be quite different.

According to the current food nutrition labeling standard, no matter what kind of cheese, the ingredient list and nutrient composition list should be listed. In the ingredient list, all kinds of raw materials are listed in order of content from high to low. If the ingredient list of a cheese is "milk, salt, fermenting bacteria, rennet", then it is natural cheese; The first ingredients in the ingredient list of a cheese are "cheese, water, vegetable oil, corn starch and whey", which means that it has been added with water, vegetable oil and corn starch, but it is still dominated by cheese; The first ingredients in the ingredient list of another kind of cheese are "cream, water, whey protein powder, white sugar, milk powder and cheese", which means that its cheese content is very small, mainly other ingredients.

Because of the diversity of processed cheese, it is not appropriate to simply say that it is worth eating or not. In fact, whether it is natural fresh cheese, soft cheese, hard cheese, or processed cheese with other ingredients, what we need is the nutrients, not their names, whether they are "natural" or not, nor what raw materials they come from. Instead of obsessing about whether to eat or not, it is better to know what to pay attention to when choosing cheese.

In the table of food nutritional components, there are five indexes: energy, protein, fat, carbohydrate and sodium. Many cheeses also list calcium content indicators. Among these indicators, energy is mainly determined by solid content, which can be ignored for cheese. Protein is the nutrient we want, and the higher the protein content in cheese, the better. Fat is usually unwanted, but natural cheese contains a lot of fat. When making cheese, you can increase the fat content by adding vegetable oil, or reduce the relative fat content by adding skim milk powder, corn starch and whey powder. In a word, we can choose cheese products without vegetable oil according to the ingredient list. Natural cheese contains little lactose, so the carbohydrate content is 0. If the carbohydrate content in the processed cheese is not zero, then the carbohydrate comes from the added ingredients. If starch is listed in the ingredient list, it is not a big problem for human health; If white sugar is added, this kind of cheese is not so healthy.

People usually add a certain amount of salt when making cheese. Salt is a big unhealthy factor in common food ingredients, so the intake should be reduced as much as possible. When comparing cheese, you can compare the ratio of calcium to salt. The higher the ratio of the two, the better the quality of cheese; The lower the ratio, the more salt there is and the less calcium there is, so it should be avoided for children.