Effects of the full cream milk somatic cell content on the characteristics of vat milk in the manufacture of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

摘要

The quality of milk plays an important role in all dairy productions for its effects on cheese yield and quality. Cows affected by subclinical or clinical mastitis manifest serious secretory disorders. These modifications can be due to the greater transport into the milk of some components of the blood, to the lower synthetic ability of the mammary gland and to the presence of high somatic cell count (leucocytes) (Mariani et al. 2001). Mastitic milk, because of its high pH values, coagulates very slowly and sometimes it does not coagulate at all (Franceschi et al. 2003). The resulting coagulum is particularly defective: curd granules, characterised by an insufficient elasticity, manifest a very low cohesion ability during cooking, accompanied by a lower syneresis capacity (Rogers and Mitchell 1994).