ABSTRACT
The rheological behavior of cheese is viscoelastic. A viscoelastic material exhibits both elastic solid and viscous liquid behavior simultaneously under a wide range of conditions. An elastic solid stores mechanical energy during deformation and reverts to its original form (shape and size) upon removal of external forces; a viscous liquid dissipates such energy. Though no material is a “true solid” or a “true liquid,” a steel spring or rubber band is a good example of an elastic solid, and water is an ubiquitous example of a viscous liquid. The simplest type of viscoelastic behavior is linear viscoelasticity, where the measured properties are independent of magnitude of the input variable (Ferry, 1980). This type of behavior is observed when the deformation is so small that the structure of a material is disturbed only to a negligible extent.
