Physicochemical changes during the creaming reaction in acid curd fresh cheese: Water mobility and forced synaeresis

Water mobility changes during a structure building reaction of full-fat cream cheese were studied by applying low-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance. A significant decrease in mobility (T₂ relaxation times from 148 to 116 ms) was found in the mobile water phase during texture building. Furthermore, the results were compared to forced synaeresis of the same cheese, which was determined by applying a multistep centrifugation method. The plotted forced synaeresis results displayed the inverse shape of the structure building reaction: ~14.6% at the beginning (0 min), ~7.4% at peak (47 min) of the reaction and ended with ~9.9% (126 min).