Disruption and reassociation of casein micelles under high pressure

Abstract

High pressure (HP) treatment affects many constituents of milk (for reviews see Huppertz et al. 2002; Needs, 2002); particular in the properties of casein micelles in HP-treated milk differ considerably from their counterparts in untreated milk. In milk treated at 100–200 MPa, average casein micelle size differs little from that of untreated milk (Needs et al. 2000a; Huppertz et al. 2004a; Regnault et al. 2004; Anema et al. 2005), but micelle size in milk treated at 250 MPa for [ges ]15 min is considerably higher than in untreated milk, probably due to HP-induced aggregation of casein micelles (Huppertz et al. 2004a,b; Regnault et al. 2004); after treatment at 300–800 MPa, micelle size is ~50% lower than that in untreated milk (Needs et al. 2000a; Huppertz et al. 2004a,b; Anema et al. 2005). HP-induced changes in average casein micelle size are irreversible on subsequent storage, except for the increase in micelle size after treatment at 250 MPa (Huppertz et al. 2004a).