Microfiltration of cheese brine

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Abstract
SUMMARY: A new technique is described for the microfiltration of cheese brine. Soft cheese brine with viable counts/ml of up to 1·2 × 106bacteria and 2·2 × 104yeasts and moulds was filtered using a pleated tangential flow filtration cartridge of 0·2 εm pore size membrane. This filtration resulted in a 3–4 orders of magnitude reduction of bacteria and the complete rejection of yeast and mould from the permeate. Hard cheese brine with similar bacterial loads was treated with a 1·2 εm pore size membrane cartridge and the resulting permeate contained 2–3 orders of magnitude fewer bacteria and no yeasts or moulds. Flux decline during the filtration was a function of the number of microorganisms and the amount of N in the brine. A cleaning procedure using enzyme and acid washes was established in order to prolong membrane performance.