Lipolysis in reduced sodium Feta cheese made by partial substitution of NaCl by KCl

Abstract

Feta cheese (five trials) of different sodium content was made from split lots of curd by varying the salting procedure, i.e. dry salting with NaCl (control) or mixtures of NaCl/KCl (3 : 1 or 1 : 1, w/w basis) and filling the cans with brine made with NaCl or the above NaCl/KCl mixtures, respectively. Lipolysis in cheese was monitored during aging by using the acid degree value (ADV) method and gas chromatography (GC). It was found that the ADVs of control and experimental cheeses were similar (P>0.05) at all sampling ages (3, 20, 40, 60, 120 and 240 d). Moreover, the results of GC showed that there were neither qualitative nor significant (P>0.05) quantitative differences in the individual free fatty acids (FFA) of the control and experimental cheeses at the ages of 40 and 120 d. These findings indicated that the partial substitution of NaCl by KCl in the manufacture of Feta cheese had no effect on lipolysis during cheese aging.