  The effect of fat content in cheese curds on their rheological properties was
examined using dynamic shear measurements. Surplus fat addition to milk samples
caused two distinct types of changes in the temperature dependence of the
viscoelastic moduli of resultant curds. The first was a significant reduction
in the moduli over a wide temperature range, which is attributed to the
presence of liquefied fat globules within the milk protein network. The second
was the excess contribution to the low-temperature moduli owing to the
reinforcing effect of solidified fat globules. An upward shift in the sol-gel
phase transition temperature driven by an increased fat content was also
observed.
