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Food production

Food production

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Question 16

An artisanal cheesemaker produces a traditional soft cheese. The stages of the process they followed are described below:

  • Step P: Heat raw milk to 72∘C72^\circ\text{C}72∘C for 15 seconds to pasteurise it.
  • Step Q: Sanitise the cheese-making vat and utensils using a food-safe chemical sterilising agent.
  • Step R: Cool the pasteurised milk down to 30∘C30^\circ\text{C}30∘C.
  • Step S: Stir a starter culture containing Lactococcus bacteria into the cooled milk.
  • Step T: Add rennet to coagulate the milk proteins and form curds.
  • Step U: Incubate the mixture at a constant temperature of 30∘C30^\circ\text{C}30∘C to 32∘C32^\circ\text{C}32∘C for 45 minutes.
  • Step V: Press the curds into molds and transfer them to a maturation room maintained at 12∘C12^\circ\text{C}12∘C.
a.

Identify the matching letters of the two steps that are designed to eliminate or reduce unwanted microorganisms that would compete with the starter culture.

[2]
b.

Explain why the milk must be cooled to 30∘C30^\circ\text{C}30∘C in Step R before the Lactococcus is added in Step S.

[2]
c.

Explain what would happen to the cheese quality or safety if the vat and utensils in Step Q had not been sanitised.

[2]
d.

Explain how the rate of lactic acid production by the bacteria would be affected if the incubation temperature in Step U dropped to 12∘C12^\circ\text{C}12∘C.

[2]
e.

Cheese is a rich dietary source of phosphorus. State one role of phosphorus in maintaining a healthy human body.

[1]
Markscheme

Food production Questions

  1. IGCSE
  2. /Biology
  3. /Food production

74 exam-style questions on Edexcel IGCSE Biology Food production. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.

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