CARBONATED RETENTATE FOR MAKING TALLAGA CHEESE

Abstract

Tallaga cheese was made from cow’s skim milk retentate injected with 10, 20 or 30g/kg of carbon dioxide and tested for its chemical, microbiological and sensory properties during 30 days of refrigerated storage. The results showed that, injection of CO2 significantly increased the acidity and decreased the pH and total solids in the retentate. The retentate holding capacity of CO2 gradually increased up to the injection level of 20 g/kg, however decreased at 30 g/kg. The retentate content of CO2 was inflected on the fresh cheese without detectable changes in its acidity and pH, however the acidity development significantly suppressed in the 10 and 20 g/ kg CO2-cheese up to 20 days of storage that extended to 30 days in the 30g/kg CO2-cheese. The Ca, K, Mg, Na and P minerals content of fresh cheese slightly decreased in that made with 30 g/kg CO2. Fresh and cold stored carbonated cheese had significantly lower content of soluble tryptophane and total volatile fatty acids (TVFA) than the control cheese. This effect was enhanced by increasing the level of the injected CO2. The microbiological analysis of retentate showed a gradual in the quality improvement with increasing the CO2 injection level. Compared to control, increasing the level of CO2 markedly improved the bacterial quality of cheese during storage. The carbonated cheese had higher sensory properties and over all acceptability than the untreated one.