Method of making standard of identity cream cheese that is flowable at refrigerated temperatures

1. A method of producing a standard of identity cream cheese that is flowable at refrigerated temperatures, comprising:

providing freshly made or reheated standard of identity cream cheese at a temperature of at least about 150° F.;

cooling the cream cheese while at least intermittently shear mixing the cream cheese.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cream cheese is initially subject to high shear mixing.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the high shear mixing increases the temperature of the cream cheese in the range of 10° F. to 15° F.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the high shear mixing is carried out using at least one of the group comprising a high shear impeller, an in-line shear pump, a back pressure valve, a scrape surface heat exchanger, and a blender.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein at least some of the high shear mixing is carried out using a high shear impeller at a speed of at least 1200 rpm.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cooling is carried out using at least one of the group comprising a scraped surface heat exchanger, plate heat exchanger, and cold jacket mixing tank.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein a shear mixing rate during cooling is in the range of 50 rpm to 5,000 rpm.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cooling is performed simultaneously with the shear mixing.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cream cheese is sequentially shear mixed and cooled in a plurality shear mixing and cooling steps.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cream cheese is cooled to a temperature in the range of 45° F. to 32° F.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cooling is carried out at about 60 degrees per minute to about 2 degree per minute.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the standard of identity cream cheese comprises:

less than 55% by weight moisture; and

at least 33% by weight fat.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the standard of identity cream cheese further comprises about 5.0% to 6.0% by weight protein and about 2% to 3% by weight lactose.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cream cheese has a flow rate greater than 0 at refrigerated temperatures using a funnel flow test over a one minute period.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the refrigerated temperatures include a range from about 32° F. to about 65° F.

16. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of dispensing the cream cheese as a flowable product into containers at a temperature in the range of 32° F. to 100° F.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the shearing step disrupts physical bonds between fat globule particles and casein micelle particles in the cream cheese.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cream cheese is cooled to a temperature below 100° F.

19. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least some of the shear mixing is carried out while the cream cheese is at a temperature of 70° F. or greater.

20. A method of producing a standard of identity cream cheese that can be converted from a flowable state at refrigerated temperatures to a solid state at refrigerated temperatures, comprising:

preparing the flowable state cream cheese by providing freshly made or reheated standard of identity cream cheese at a temperature of at least about 150° F., and cooling the cream cheese to a temperature below 100° F. while at least intermittently shearing the cream cheese with a mixing device; and

preparing the solid state cream cheese by reheating the flowable state cream cheese to a temperature above 100° F., and cooling the cream cheese to refrigerated temperatures without mixing.