[Title 21 CFR 133.187]
[Code of Federal Regulations (annual edition) - April 1, 1996 Edition]
[Title 21 - FOOD AND DRUGS]
[Chapter I - FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES--CONTINUED]
[Subchapter B - FOOD FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION]
[Part 133 - CHEESES AND RELATED CHEESE PRODUCTS]
[Subpart B - Requirements for Specific Standardized Cheese and Related]
[Sec. 133.187 - Semisoft cheeses.]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]




  21
  FOOD AND DRUGS
  2
  1996-04-01
  1996-04-01
  false
  
  133.187
  Sec. 133.187
  
    FOOD AND DRUGS
    FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES--CONTINUED
    FOOD FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION
    CHEESES AND RELATED CHEESE PRODUCTS
    Requirements for Specific Standardized Cheese and Related
  


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

[[Page 344]]

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 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]