THE VISCOSITY OF CHEESE SAUCES WITH DIFFERENT STARCH SYSTEMS AND CHEESE POWDERS

Cheese sauces were prepared by blending cheese powders, starches, skim milk powder, flavouring agents, milk and/or water to similar to 24% d ry matter, cooking to 98 degrees C and simmering for similar to 2 minu tes. Most sauces exhibited thixotrophic behaviour as characterized by the curvilinear decreases in viscosity and shear stress with time when subjected to a constant shear rate (118 s(-1)). However, Colflo 67 ba sed sauces underwent shear thinning initially and then shear thickenin g at shearing times >similar to 200 s. Increasing the total starch lev el from 2 to 4% resulted in sauces which had more viscous consistencie s, higher susceptibility to shear thinning and higher viscosities on c ompletion of shearing. The rheological properties of sauces were marke dly influenced by serving temperature and the type of starch base used . Variation in the level of cheese solids in the cheese powder had lit tle influence on the theological characteristics of sauces when used a t levels of <10% (w/w).