COLOURING AGENTS:
Colours fluctuate in cheese as it does in butter due to seasonal and feed variations. High fat cheeses are more highly pigmented than low fat, as most colouring agents are absorbed in the fat.

The coloring agents for cheese are dissolved in a base - often potash - which fastens itself to casein, while butter-coloring agents are dissolved in vegetable oil. Too much of a red colour or yellow colour can be a defect.

Aniline colour was used for cheese, but is not used today, because it is prohibited for butter, cheese and other dairy products.

Saffran colour, which is extracted from dried crocus, gives a light yellow colour tone and has been, used some for special cheeses such as Emmentaler and Parmesan cheese.

Carotene colour is a natural colouring agent in milk, which in the organism is transformed to vitamin A. It has for a long time been used to some extent as butter colour, and there are now excellent carotene colors, which give cheese a yellow colour tone.

Cheese colour should in all cases have the right colour tone and a constant strength. If it gets cloudy in light it should be stored in a coloured container, in a dark place.

The necessary amount of colour, which varies with the season, cheese types and fat percentages, should be measured in a cylinder and mixed into the milk before rennet is added. The whole cylinder should be dipped into the milk and stirred in until the colour is emptied out. Watch that the colour does not float on top of the milk, as then it is difficult to mix it in properly.

For Havarti and Esrom approximately 1 g. of weak colour per 100-kg milk, for Maribo 1-3 g. depending on season and fat content are used. In winter 1/2 - 1 g. more colour per 100 kg cheesemilk are added than in summer.

De-colouring agents are used in Europe with Danablue, Feta, Akawi, Nabulsi, Kefalotiri, Kashkaval and similar cheeses. These cheeses are manufactured from strongly coloured cows' milk, but compete with cheese manufactured from sheep milk, which gives a nearly white cheese mass. The typical decolouring agent used, is a green blue chlorophyll colour, which gives a lighter colour tone, complementary to milk's yellow colour.

In milk, the following complementary colour system works:

Milk colour
Green yellow



White



Blue red

To get a white (light) colour, the colour has to be very weak, and the more colour we mix together of the different colours, the darker the end result.

Other Methods for De-colouring (check your local regulations before using any of these):

Titandioxyd

Titandioxyd is used in some cases in the manufacture of Mozzarella cheese.
By adding titandioxyd to Feta cheese and similar cheese, they will become lighter in colour. By gradual addition of titandioxyd to cream before homogenizing, the amount is usually 5-10 gm. per 100 litters cheesemilk, which results in acceptable whiteness.

Also Brilliant blue is used ¼ teaspoon in one gallon of potable water for 50,000 Liter (approx. 13,210 gal.). Mix in well before adding rennet.

Available from Danlac as a special order (not available in our web store)

Benzoyl Peroxide

The addition of benzoylperoxide is used in USA for the bleaching of fat in the manufacture of blue cheese.
Benzoyl peroxide is a strong oxidation agent, which is very explosive in pure form. A 16% mixture with calcium sulphate and magnium carbonate is used.

It can only be used in relatively small amounts, as it destroys the carotine content in cream as well as giving a tallow taste. In practice the bleaching is done by adding the benzoyl peroxide as a liquid suspension to a 30% cream and immediately after addition heating the cream to 50 - 60°C maintaining that temperature for up to 2 hours.

Removal of Colouring Agents

It is possible to remove the yellow colour (carotene) from butterfat. Separating fat as butteroil and then adding bleaching soil or bleaching carbon, as these will absorb carotene can do this.

This is used in manufacturing of edible oils. One can also subject butteroil to a strong heat treatment, by which the carotene is destroyed.