Supervision of milk coagulation with scatter red LED light

Abstract

For cheese production clotting time is prederteminated using a proteolytic enzyme titulation test (Chamorro and Losada 2002). Thus an expert operator decides the optimum cutting time (always delayed compared to clotting time) based on his own subjective evaluation of textural and visual properties of the curd (Castillo et al. 2000). Expert judgment usually gives acceptable results, yet variability in the optimal assessment of cutting time leads to affects further cheese processing operations (pressing and ripening). The aforementioned reasons suggest the importance of an objective and non-destructive method to determinate optimal cutting time, which would allow indeed the automatic supervision of the cheese clotting process. The goal of this work is a prospective study for the supervision of milk coagulation with scatter red LED light