SALTING OF CHEESE

SALTING EQUIPMENT

· The salting should be completed in an atmosphere isolated from any humidity in order to avoid the ingress of moisture to the metering device and thus the changes in accuracy of salting. The salting equipment in the Alf-O-Matic operates as given under:

· Warm, dry air transfers the salt from storage to a salt metering belt;

· Hot air passing through the valve transfers the salt to a stainless steel, oscillating distribution tube to be spread on to the cheese curd. The oscillating pipe is driven by an electric, geared motor;

· The amount of salt added is controlled by a floating sensor that determines the depth of the milled curd and actuates the salt metering device either to increase or decrease the salt dosage in line with the height of the milled curd; and

· Salt mixing and mellowing take place on conveyor where the curd chips are treated in a series of resting and turning periods. The residence time varies between 10 and 30 minutes.

The salt retention unit developed by Damrow Company has the following sequence of operations

· The curd chips are air conveyed from the cheese making equipment to a cyclone situated on top of the salt retention unit (SRU);

· The curd chips fall to the bottom of the cyclone and are delivered to a weighing belt and the air is vented out at the top of the cyclone;

· The curd chips enter the mixing drum where the exact amount of salt is added and mixed for a short period; the curd exits on to the mellowing top belt; the principle of using a mixing drum similar to the Bell Siro cheese maker system;

· Mellowing of the salted curd takes place on the two belts which are similar in operation to the DMC and

· At the end of the second belt, the mellowed curd leaves the SRU through the star valve and is air conveyed to a mould or heap filling station.