Effect of pH on sensory, textural, microbial quality and shelf-life of Paneer

Abstract

'Paneer' has a very low shelf-life. Hurdles like spices, pH, water activity, temperature, redox potential, packaging etc. can be used to enhance the shelf-life of 'paneer'. Present study was conducted to investigate the effect of low pH on sensory, textural, microbial quality and shelf-life of 'paneer'. The 'paneer' block was dipped in 0.50 percent citric acid solution for 12 hours which, as expected, reduced the pH of the sample from 5.61 to 5.23. Dipping of 'paneer' resulted in increase of hardness, gumminess and chewiness from 1088, 889 and 849 g to 1160, 933 and 881 g, respectively while springiness decreased from 0.955 to 0.943. Standard Plate Count (SPC) of control 'paneer' increased from 26,000 to 2,96,000 cfu/g on 8th day whereas the figure for treated 'paneer' was 2,40,000 cfu/g. Yeast and mould count in control 'paneer' increased from 27 to 290 cfu/g and for treated 'paneer' from 14 to 127 cfu/g on 8th day of storage at refrigeration temperature. The body and texture, flavor and overall acceptability scores of dipped samples were lower than those of control while color and appearance score of treated 'paneer' was higher than the control 'paneer'. Reduced pH did not enhance the shelf-life of 'paneer' at ambient temperature while it extended from 6 to 12 days at refrigeration (7+-1 degreesC) temperature.