[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 21, Volume 2]
[Revised as of April 1, 2006]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 21CFR133.187]
[Page 354-355]
TITLE 21--FOOD AND DRUGS
CHAPTER I--FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN
SERVICES (CONTINUED)
PART 133_CHEESES AND RELATED CHEESE PRODUCTS--Table of Contents
Subpart B_Requirements for Specific Standardized Cheese and Related
Products
Sec. 133.187 Semisoft cheeses.
(a) The cheeses for which definitions and standards of identity are
prescribed by this section are semisoft cheeses for which specifically
applicable definitions and standards of identity are not prescribed by
other sections of this part. They are made from milk and other
ingredients specified in this section, by the procedure set forth in
paragraph (b) of this section. They contain more than 39 percent, but
not more than 50 percent, of moisture, and their solids contain not less
than 50 percent of milkfat, as determined by the methods prescribed in
Sec. 133.5 (a), (b), and (d). If the milk used is not pasteurized, the
cheese so made is cured at a temperature of not less than 35 [deg]F for
not less than 60 days.
(b) Milk, which may be pasteurized or clarified or both, and which
may be warmed, is subjected to the action of harmless lactic-acid-
producing bacteria or other harmless flavor-producing bacteria, present
in such milk or added thereto. Sufficient rennet, rennet paste, extract
of rennet paste, or other safe and suitable milk-clotting enzyme that
produces equivalent curd formation, singly or in any combination (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
milk) is added to set the milk to a semisolid mass. Harmless artificial
coloring may be added. After coagulation the mass is so treated as to
promote and regulate the separation of whey and curd. Such treatment may
include one or more of the following: cutting, stirring, heating,
dilution with water or brine. The whey, or part of it, is drained off,
and the curd is collected and shaped. It may be placed in forms, and may
be pressed. Harmless flavor-producing microorganisms may be added. It
may be cured in a manner to promote the growth of biological curing
agents. Salt may be added during the procedure. A harmless preparation
of enzymes of animal or plant origin capable of aiding in the curing or
development of flavor of semisoft cheese may be added, 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) For the purposes of this section:
(1) The word ``milk'' means cow's milk or goat's milk or sheep's
milk or mixtures of two or all of these. Such milk may be adjusted by
separating part of the fat therefrom, or (in the case of cow's milk) by
adding one or more of the following: Cream, skim milk, concentrated skim
milk, nonfat dry milk; (in the case of goat's milk) the corresponding
products from goat's milk; (in the case of sheep's milk) the
corresponding products from sheep's milk; water in a quantity sufficient
to reconstitute any concentrated or dried products used.
(2) Milk shall be deemed to have been pasteurized if it has been
held at a temperature of not less than 143 [deg]F for a period of not
less than 30 minutes, or for a time and at a temperature equivalent
thereto in phosphatase destruction. A semisoft cheese shall be deemed
not to have been made from pasteurized milk if 0.25 gram shows a phenol
equivalent of more than 5 micrograms when tested by the method
prescribed in Sec. 133.5(c).
(d) Semisoft cheeses in the form of slices or cuts in consumer-sized
packages may contain an optional mold-inhibiting ingredient consisting
of sorbic acid, potassium sorbate, sodium sorbate, or any combination of
two or more of these, in an amount not to exceed 0.3 percent by weight,
calculated as sorbic acid.
(e) The name of each semisoft cheese for which a definition and
standard of identity is prescribed by this section is ``Semisoft
cheese'', preceded or followed by:
(1) The specific common or usual name of such semisoft cheese, if
any such name has become generally recognized therefor; or
(2) If no such specific common or usual name has become generally
recognized therefor, an arbitrary or fanciful name which is not false or
misleading in any particular.
(f)(1) When milk other than cow's milk is used in whole or in part,
the
[[Page 355]]
name of the cheese includes the statement ``made from ------'', the
blank being filled in with the name or names of the milk used, in order
of predominance by weight.
(2) If semisoft cheese in sliced or cut form contains an optional
mold-inhibiting ingredient as specified in paragraph (d) of this
section, the label shall bear the statement ``------ added to retard
mold growth'' or ``------ added as a preservative'', the blank being
filled in with the common name or names of the mold-inhibiting
ingredient or ingredients used.
(3) Wherever the name of the food appears on the label so
conspicuously as to be easily seen under customary conditions of
purchase, the words and statements prescribed by this section, showing
the optional ingredient used, shall immediately and conspicuously
precede or follow such name, without intervening written, printed, or
graphic matter.
(g) Label declaration. 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]
Additives that reference this regulation: |
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