A method for stabilizing cheese proteins includes preparing a cheese masscomprisingcheese curds and whey adding a stabilizing additive to the cheese massstraining the cheesemass to separate a cheese curd and whey and forming the cheese curd into acheesecomprising about 18 to about 35 % protein. In some embodiments, the method ismodified toallow for a gentler cheese manufacturing process. A cheese composition mayinclude cheeseabout 18 to about 35 % protein comprising about 0.01 to about 25 % of intactproteinsegments by weight of the protein and about 0.001 to about 5 % of astabilizing additive.
