Unraveling processed cheese structure: Effect of calcium sequestering salts on casein micelle suspensions

One of the key routes to attain functionality in processed and analogue cheese productions is via the addition of calcium sequestering salts (CSS). CSS are needed to disrupt the scaffold of primary casein particles and calcium phosphate nanoclusters that is naturally present in casein micelles, and remains present in rennet casein or cheese. We have characterized our proposed system (see section 3) of micellar casein with different CSS through various means. The combination of SANS and spin-echo SANS (SE-SANS) will enable elucidating the underlying structure and interactions in across a range of smaller and larger length scales not typically achievable by other means. We want to perform SANS and SE-SANS measurements on micellar casein suspensions containing different CSS, i.e., sodium salts of citrate, pyrophosphate and hexametaphosphate.