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Cheese Technology

How higher milk solids are transforming cheesemaking

Eva Kuhn

Eva Kuhn is a cheese technologist at Tetra Pak Inc. and has served as a technical judge for the American Cheese Society Judging & Competition. She contributes this column exclusively for Cheese Market News®.

Maintaining consistent product quality and increasing cheese production without capital spending remain constant challenges, especially with the many variables that can affect output. One recent trend affecting production is a shift in higher milk solids, which brings a variance in proteins and fats, therefore having an impact downstream.

According to AgProud.com, while overall milk production declined in 2024, efficiency gains have led to higher milk solids output. As of March 2025, the average U.S. butterfat test reached 4.36%, up 0.088 percentage points from the previous year, while the average protein test rose 0.04 percentage points, an increase of 3.38%. More efficient production, coupled with an increase in the national herd of 15,000 head from January to March of 2025 and an increase of 57,000 head year-on-year, means the industry can meet new demand for milk solids more quickly than in the past.

Processors prioritize consistent high-quality cheese and ingredients, making it essential to manage production fluctuations to minimize any variability in their products.

Higher milk solids — driven by factors such as seasonality, shifts in cow breeds and feed — can change the fat-to-protein ratio daily. Technologists across the industry, including those at Tetra Pak, are working to account for the range of downstream touchpoints to manage variations and provide consistency using science and intuition. Here are two opportunities for cheese producers to quality check their process and consider the influence of high-solid milk.

• Challenge traditional cheesemaking

Many of the traditional methods of cheesemaking still reign supreme, even with the advent of new technologies. Higher milk solids lead to challenges of achieving proper acidification rate and pH development, which affects cheese quality, structure and how it holds onto moisture. With higher milk solids, buffering capacity is increased. As the acidification process occurs, lactic acid is dissolving calcium. However, the higher milk solids mean there’s more calcium that has to be dissolved to reach traditional acidification targets.

Calcium bound to the cheese structure acts like “cheese glue,” and one effective adaptation is pre-acidification. By lowering the milk’s pH before rennet addition, curd structure becomes more open, allowing for better moisture control and improved functionality, such as melt and stretch. This step can restore desired performance in high-solids applications. Every minute in cheesemaking counts, and the acid development control rate is one of the most critical processes in cheese.

Typically, factories with higher milk solids also want to make the cheese as quickly as possible while meeting their quality specifications. One opportunity to challenge tradition is using pre-acidification as a tool for pH control and acid development rate. Starter cultures are the tried-and-true ingredient in the cheesemaking process. But with higher milk solids requiring higher acid production to overcome bound calcium, it requires higher dosages of starter culture to meet pH targets. This sometimes leads to challenges with cheese texture and moisture retention. Factories can make the decision to increase starter dosage but need to consider cost and whether increased dosage can achieve the pH targets required for the recipe.

Pre-acidification with carbon dioxide (CO2) can be used as a tool to help ensure desired acidification rates are achieved within factory design capacity timing and starter culture dosage. The technique involves dissolving CO2 into milk before adding starter culture, effectively lowering the milk’s pH. Additionally, lower pH at coagulation from CO2 will increase rennet enzyme activity and can reduce the amount of rennet required for same curd firmness. And if rennet amount is reduced, you’ll need to consider the potential impact on cheese structure and flavor during aging as residual rennet can be a key factor in the cheese aging process. This can enhance curd formation, improve moisture retention and optimize the functional properties of cheeses like Mozzarella and Cheddar.

• Manage the recipe

With higher milk solids, coagulation becomes a critical point of conversation that requires greater oversight by production teams. Coagulation sets the stage for cheesemaking, and if that doesn’t go well, downstream processes are affected.

For many production teams, confirming coagulation is still a manual process and requires visual and physical review to make a determination on when to cut. Coagulation is influenced not only by milk composition but also several factors including temperature, the amount and type of rennet, and pH or acidity of the milk. With higher solids, the coagulum firming rate happens more quickly and creates a narrower optimal cutting window.

A key point to remember is curd continues to firm during the cutting phase, and a faster firming rate can require more aggressive cutting to minimize cheese fines and fat losses in whey. In other words, too slow of a cut results in coagulum tearing rather than a clean cut, leading to issues with cheese fines, curd matting and increased fat losses.

The other significant outcome to managing this tighter window of coagulation is curd size uniformity.

Consistent curd size is critical for several reasons, including maximizing yield and maintaining consistent quality. Uniform curds drain whey consistently, which helps standardize the cheese’s moisture content.

Additionally, when curds are cut unevenly, smaller fragments can release trapped fat into the whey. Being aware of the impacts of higher milk solids to the coagulation of your cheese is critical to ensure you have the proper process controls in place to optimize your cheese quality.

• What’s to come

In today’s evolving dairy landscape, meeting the demand of increased and variable milk solids while remaining consistent with production is more important than ever. Using the latest in technology, managing your process variation and learning in real time is critical to managing your plant’s high expectations in product quality and output. The right collaborator will work side by side with you to turn complexity into opportunity. As milk composition continues to evolve, so should your equipment provider — ready to innovate, troubleshoot and scale alongside your business.

CMN

The views expressed by CMN’s guest columnists are their own opinions and do not necessarily reflect those of Cheese Market News®.

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