The effect of different composition of ternary mixtures of emulsifying salts on the consistency of processed cheese spreads manufactured from Swiss-type cheese with different degrees of maturity

Abstract

The scope of this work was to investigate the dependence of selected textural (texture profile analysis, TPA) and viscoelastic properties of processed cheese on the composition of ternary mixtures of emulsifying salts [disodium hydrogenphosphate, DSP; tetrasodium diphosphate, TSPP; sodium salt of polyphosphate (with mean length n ≈ 20), P20; and trisodium citrate, TSC] during a 60-d storage period (6±2°C). The processed cheese samples [40% wt/wt dry matter (DM) content, 50% wt/wt fat in DM content] were manufactured using Swiss-type cheese (as the main raw material) with 4 different maturity degrees (4, 8, 12, and 16 wk of ripening). Moreover, the pH of the samples was adjusted (the target values within the range of 5.60–5.80), corresponding to the standard pH values of spreadable processed cheese. With respect to the individual application of emulsifying salts (regardless of the maturity degree of the Swiss-type cheese applied), the samples prepared with P20 were the hardest, followed by those prepared with TSPP, TSC, and DSP. Furthermore, a specific ratio of DSP:TSPP (1:1) led to a significant increase in the hardness of the samples. On the whole, the hardness of all processed cheese samples increased with the prolonging storage period, whereas their hardness significantly dropped with the rising ripening stage of the raw material utilized. In all of the cases, the trends of hardness development remained analogous, and only the absolute values differed significantly. Moreover, the findings of TPA were in accordance with those of the rheological analysis. In particular, the specific ratio of DSP:TSPP (1:1) resulted in the highest gel strength and interaction factor values, followed by P20, TSPP, TSC, and DSP (used individually), reporting the same trend which was demonstrated by TPA. The monitored values of the gel strength and interaction factor decreased with the increasing maturity degree of the Swiss-type cheese used. The intensity of the rigidity of the samples showed an analogous relationship to the intensity of the gel strength; the higher the gel strength of the sample, the more inflexible the product is expected to be.