(a) Skim milk cheese for manufacturing is the food prepared from skim milk and other ingredients specified in this section, by the procedure set forth in paragraph (b) of this section, or by another procedure which produces a finished cheese having the same physical and chemical properties as the cheese produced when the procedure set forth in paragraph (b) of this section is used. It contains not more than 50 percent of moisture, as determined by the method prescribed in §133.5 (a). It is coated with blue-colored paraffin or other tightly adhering coating, colored blue.

(b) Skim milk or the optional dairy ingredients specified in paragraph (c) of this section, which may be pasteurized, and which may be warmed, are subjected to the action of harmless lactic-acid-producing bacteria, present in such milk or added thereto. Harmless artificial coloring may be added. Sufficient rennet, or other safe and suitable milk-clotting enzyme that produces equivalent curd formation, or both, with or without purified calcium chloride in a quantity not more than 0.02 percent (calculated as anhydrous calcium chloride) of the weight of the skim milk, is added to set the skim milk to a semisolid mass. The mass is so cut, stirred, and heated with continued stirring, as to promote and regulate the separation of whey and curd. The whey is drained off, and the curd is matted into a cohesive mass. Proteins from the whey may be incorporated. The mass is cut into slabs which are so piled and handled as to promote the drainage of whey and the development of acidity. The slabs are then cut into pieces, which may be rinsed by pouring or sprinkling water over them, with free and continuous drainage; but the duration of such rinsing is so limited that only the whey on the surface of such pieces is removed. The curd is salted, stirred, further drained, and pressed into forms. A harmless preparation of enzymes of animal or plant origin capable of aiding in the curing or development of flavor of skim milk cheese for manufacturing may be added during the procedure, in such quantity that the weight of the solids of such preparation is not more than 0.1 percent of the weight of the milk used.

(c) The optional dairy ingredients referred to in paragraph (b) of this section are: Skim milk or concentrated skim milk or nonfat dry milk or a mixture of any two or more of these, with water in a quantity not in excess of that sufficient to reconstitute any concentrated skim milk or nonfat dry milk used.

(d) For the purposes of this section, “skim milk” means cow's milk from which the milk fat has been separated.

(e) Each of the ingredients used in the food shall be declared on the label as required by the applicable sections of parts 101 and 130 of this chapter.

[42 FR 14366, Mar. 15, 1977, as amended at 49 FR 10096, Mar. 19, 1984; 58 FR 2895, Jan. 6, 1993]