Abstract: Blue cheese flavored products are produced by forming a mixture of whey, food fat, salt and water, homogenizing and pasteurizing the mixture, adding lipase and Penicillium roqueforti spores to the mixture and fermenting. Alternatively, a mixture of food fat, salt and water is pasteurized and fermented with lipase and Penicillium roqueforti spores, and the resultant fermented mixture is mixed with a retentate produced by ultrafiltration of a milk product. The blue cheese flavored products have an extremely high quotient of flavor which can be blended with other foods to impart a blue cheese flavor.

Abstract: Functional protein is prepared by heat denaturing impure natural protein selected from whey, microbial and vegetable protein and subjecting the separated denatured protein to enzymatic proteolysis for a period of up to 30 minutes at 20 to 65.degree. C using at least a designated minimum amount of enzyme. Because of its high degree of functionality and its lack of bitter taste, the modified protein has a wide application in food compositions, primarily as a replacement for nonfat dry milk, sodium caseinate, gelatin and egg albumin.

Abstract: A method for producing blue cheese from pasteurized or heat treated milk, characterized by the addition to the cheese curds from which the whey has been drained, of a mixture of lipase, a Penicillium mold spore species, and salt. The Penicillium species may include Penicillium roqueforti or Penicillium glaucum, and the lipase is preferably a microbial lipase formed from Aspergilli ssp., Penicillium ssp. or Rhizopus ssp., or suitable animal lipase sources. The resultant cheese product is imparted with the appropriate blue cheese flavor with required rancidity in a greatly shortened period of time (i.e., about 2 to 4 months).