Abstract
The present study aims to characterize buffalo Stracchino cheese (BS) from a sensory point of view and verify how much consumers like it compared with the standard Stracchino cheese obtained from cow milk (CS). Nine panelists specifically trained to evaluate Stracchino cheese were used to conduct a quantitative descriptive sensory analysis, whereas 80 untrained consumers balanced for gender participated in the hedonic consumer test. Stracchino appearance was affected by milk type with higher intensities perceived for BS in terms of whiteness (P<0.0001) and shininess (P<0.001). As to taste and texture, BS showed higher sourness and oiliness intensities than CS, respectively (P<0.0001). Milk type did not affect the overall liking or the liking in terms of taste/flavor, texture, and appearance, but consumers rated both products at scores well above the neutral point. In addition, the liking expressed in blind conditions (i.e., without information on the milk type) was significantly lower as compared with the liking elicited by the expectations (i.e., based only on the information on the milk type) (P<0.05 and P<0.10, for CS and BS, respectively). We conclude that the good eating quality of buffalo Stracchino cheese as assessed by the consumer panel and the lack of differences between CS and BS in terms of a consumer may anticipate a possible good positioning of this novel product in the market of fresh cheese.
Highlights
The number of buffalo cows and buffalo milk produced worldwide have been steadily increasing since 1960 [1]
The present study aims to characterize buffalo Stracchino cheese (BS) from a sensory point of view and verify how much consumers like it compared with the standard Stracchino cheese obtained from cow milk (CS)
Stracchino appearance was affected by milk type in terms of whiteness and shininess (60.35 ± 4.24 vs. 43.03 ± 4.24, P=0.0049), with higher intensities perceived for BS
Summary
The number of buffalo cows and buffalo milk produced worldwide have been steadily increasing since 1960 [1]. In the countries where this species is most common (e.g., India, Pakistan, Nepal, Egypt), the same trend can be observed for other dairy species, and the proportion of buffalo milk did not increase or even decrease over the same period. In Italy, the proportion of buffalo milk increased compared with that produced by other dairy species in the same period [1]. Zicarelli [2] explained this trend based on the high market shares of buffalo mozzarella cheese driving milk production and buffalo population consistency. The mozzarella cheese market is very seasonal, with peaks of consumption in spring-summer and very low Stracchino cheese is another typical Italian product traditionally made out of cow milk, which shares the attribute of freshness with mozzarella cheese. The process and product characteristics inducing freshness in mozzarella cheeses imply high moisture contents (more than 50%), making mozzarella cheese more perishable than other cheeses with similar moisture content but made out of pasteurized milk, such as stracchino cheese [7]
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