At the same time, the meltability of the cheese needs to be maintained at least at the level of the current product. Meltability is measured by cutting a disk of cheese of a specified size, and placing the disk in a glass Petri dish. A technician heats the Petri dish in an oven at 350oF for seven minutes, then pulls the dish out and measures the diameter of the circle the melted cheese has formed.
Photo 1: Meltability is measured by the diameter of the circle the melted cheese has formed
This experiment used the pH of the cheese as a benchmark to monitor potential changes to the flavor. The pH needs to be high enough to avoid creating an acidic taste, but not too high because that would affect shelf life. The responses for the experiment were thus:
1) Browning (Hunter “a” value)
2) Meltability
3) pH
Standard Order |
Run (Random) |
Factor A |
Factor B |
1 |
11 |
A |
Type 1 |
2 |
2 |
A |
Type 1 |
3 |
3 |
B |
Type 1 |
4 |
10 |
B |
Type 1 |
5 |
4 |
C |
Type 1 |
6 |
16 |
C |
Type 1 |
7 |
1 |
D |
Type 1 |
8 |
5 |
D |
Type 1 |
9 |
8 |
A |
Type 2 |
10 |
13 |
A |
Type 2 |
11 |
15 |
B |
Type 2 |
12 |
6 |
B |
Type 2 |
13 |
12 |
C |
Type 2 |
14 |
14 |
C |
Type 2 |
15 |
9 |
D |
Type 2 |
16 |
7 |
D |
Type 2 |
Figure 1: Designed experiment