Products / Cheese Processıng Lines Halloumi Cheese Processing

Halloumi is the traditional cheese of Cyprus. For hundreds of years, it has been produced from raw sheep’s milk or mixtures of raw sheep’s and goats’ milks; nowadays, large factories use also pasteurized cows’ milk for its manufacture. Normally, the colour of the cheese is white, but that made from cows’ milk is yellowish. It is a semi-hard cheese with no rind and no gas holes, and its texture is elastic and compact.

The specific characteristic of its manufacturing procedure is that the blocks of pressed curd (10 x 10 x 3 cm) are heated at 90–95 °C in heat-deproteinated whey for at least 30 min. After cooling on a table, the curd blocks are salted with dry salt, often mixed with dry chopped leaves of mint .

Halloumi is sold fresh (immediately after production) or is stored at 4 °C in the whey previously used to heat-treat the curd, containing appx.120 g/l salt. The severe heat treatment, together with the use of salted whey, makes this cheese suitable for storage without refrigeration for a short period of time.