Propostas de melhorias que possibilitem a reutilização da salmoura utilizada na salga do queijo muçarela

Abstract

The work took place in the cheesemaking sector of a dairy industry in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, during a period of two months. For the production of the pieces of mozzarella cheese, several steps occur, among the main ones is the salting, which contributes to numerous parameters such as: flavor formation, humidity control, microbiological control, among others. The salting can be done in several ways, such as adding salt in the milk, in the paste, dry, and by immersion in brine. The latter is the most usual in Brazil and is used in the industry in question. However, the brine is a cause for concern, because it offers risks to the health of consumers through cross contamination due to failures in the periodicity of analysis, its correction or recovery. Thus, the objective of this work is to present some improvements in the salting process of mozzarella cheeses, regarding the physical-chemical and microbiological analysis and the need or not of corrections of the saline solution. The results obtained show the need for a correction in the brine temperature and in the salt concentration, which is not currently done. As for the pH value, it remained within the established range of 5.2 to 5.4, possibly due to the buffering of the brine. The results of the microorganism count performed in the microbiological analyses, obtained acceptable values. Several changes were suggested in the spreadsheets where the parameters obtained in the industry laboratories are recorded, and also a method to correct the brine salt concentration. In view of this, it is aimed to help improve the quality of mozzarella cheese through the treatment of brine and improvements listed during this study.