Aged cheese is removed from storage and tempered to 60° F. After tempering the cheese is dumped, ground and conveyed to the ribbon blenders to make the various formulas. From the ribbon blenders, the product is discharged to the twin screw hopper, which force feeds the WCB Rectangular Flanged Timing Pump with variable speed control. The timing pump provides the motive force to control the flow through the WCB Scraped Surface Heat Exchanger prior to deaeration. The SSHE utilizes pressurized hot water as the heating medium to minimize product fouling due to high protein level in the various cheese formulas. The deaeration vessel removes entrained air for consistent slices and loaf packaging. From the deaeration vessel, the product flows to the hot water jacketed scraped surface surge tank to provide continuous flow to the packaging equipment.