ABSTRACT
Enzymatic coagulation of milk is a critical phase of cheese-making process. This chapter deals with the characteristics, production and use of microbial milk coagulants, especially those from fungi that are used in the cheese industry since 1960s. Thermal stability of milk-clotting enzyme is very important, especially when after cheese making the whey is going to be processed. In such a production, the selected fungal strain is initially inoculated into a flask containing an agar or liquid medium to sporulate and then transferred to a seed fermenter in which the cells adapt to the environment and the nutrients used in the rest of the process. The final steps in commercial microbial coagulant production is formulation, standardization and quality control of the milk-clotting activity. Microbial milk-clotting enzymes have advantages over animal rennet because they are easily produced, their availability is inexhaustible and their characteristics can be improved, using biotechnology tools.
