Effect of Ginger Rhizomes Extracts on Keeping Quality and Oxidative Stability of UF-White Soft Cheese

Abstract

The present study was carried out to estimate the effect of ginger rhizomes (Zingiber officinale) extracts on the oxidative stability, chemical composition, microbiological and sensory properties of UF-soft cheese being made with aqueous or ethanolic ginger extracts (1%) compared to control cheese and cheese contained 0.02% of butylated hydroxy anisole (BHA). Resultant cheeses were stored in brine solution 6% at 7±1°C up to 90 days. Results showed that, addition of ginger rhizomes extracts had increasing significant effect (P≤0.05) on fat/DM%, soluble nitrogen (SN/TN%) and non protein nitrogen (NPN/TN%). On the other hand, titratable acidity, total protein%, salt in moisture% and total volatile fatty acids (TVFAs) were decreased with addition of aqueous or ethanolic ginger extracts compared to control cheese and cheese treated with BHA as synthetic antioxidant. Cheese containing 1% ethanolic extract showed the highest oxidative stability. Also, ginger extracts reduced the total bacterial count than the control and BHA treatment. However, yeast and mould counts showed opposite trend and they were not detected in all treated samples up to 60 days of storage. Also, results showed that, cheese samples containing ginger ethanolic extract (1%) showed better organoleptic characteristics than other treatments. From the previous it is advanced to use ginger extract in manufacture of white soft cheese at the rate of (1%).