APPLICATION OF NUMERICAL-ANALYSIS TO A NUMBER OF MODELS FOR CHYMOSIN-INDUCED COAGULATION OF CASEIN MICELLES

Four models describing renneting kinetics are evaluated for their abil ity to describe well documented attributes of the coagulation of casei n micelles. The first model is based on a constant flocculation rate p arameter. In the second the flocculation rate constant is proportional to the product of the sizes of the aggregating particles. Both models fail to predict proper dependence of rennet coagulation time on enzym e concentration. The third model is based on an energy barrier being r educed in linear proportion to the degree of proteolysis. The enzyme d ependency of this model only works when the initial energy barrier is larger than similar to 50 k(B)T (where k(B) is Boltzmann's constant an d T the absolute temperature), which does not seem feasible. The fourt h model, based on functionality theory, is able to predict proper depe ndence of rennet coagulation time on enzyme concentration when functio nality is similar to 2.