An apparatus has a brine tank that is subdivided into cooling cells each having
a vertical carousel for submerging blocks of cheese. The cheese blocks are carried
through an inlet flume by a flow of brine and then sequentially diverted into the
cooling cells where the cheese blocks are loaded into the respective vertical carousel.
After the cheese has cooled sufficiently, the brine flow carries the blocks of
cheese out of the respective cooling cell. Movement of the cheese blocks and the
carousels is controlled automatically, without human intervention. A unique fluid
circulation system transfers chilled brine through the tank from a cooling cell
containing the coldest cheese to cooling cells with successively warmer cheese blocks.
