Effect of gel firmness at cutting time, pH, and temperature on rennet coagulation and syneresis: an in situ 1H NMR relaxation study.

The objective of this study was to monitor rennet-induced milk gel formation and mechanically induced gel syneresis in situ by low-field NMR. pH, temperature, and gel firmness at cutting time were varied in a factorial design. The new curve-fitting method Doubleslicing revealed that during coagulation two proton populations with distinct transverse relaxation times (T2,1=181, T2,2=465 ms) were present in fractions (f1=98.9%, f2=1.1%). Mechanical cutting of the gel in the NMR tube induced macrosyneresis, which led to the appearance of an additional proton population (T2,3=1500-2200 ms) identified as whey. On the basis of NMR quantification of whey water the syneresis rate was calculated and found to be significantly dependent on pH and temperature.