Use of Hydrocolloids for Enhancing Egyptian Style Low Fat White Soft Cheese Attributes

Abstract

The yield, composition, organoleptic, textural and microbiological properties of Egyptian style low-fat white soft cheeses made of skim buffalo’s milk (0.1%F) by adding fat replacers (hydrocolloids); 0.07 & 0.1% w/w Xanthan gum (XG), 0.5 & 0.75% w/w Tragacanth gum (TG) and 0.5 & 1% w/w Maltodextrin (MD) were evaluated and compared with their counterpart low & full fat control cheeses (LFC & FFC). All of the low-fat products reduced the yield, F/DM, Ash/DM, M:P and MNFS, whereas the moisture content, P/DM, and pH significantly increased. However, the cheeses containing hydrocolloids had higher moisture and yield values than their control LFC with respect to the type and concentration. The mean values of TPA (texture profile analysis) improved the cheese texture parameters, when the hydrocolloids were included. This was clearly evident by sensory evaluation. The replacement of fat by these hydrocolloids caused a significant increase of the total, proteolytic and lipolytic bacteria counts and moulds & yeasts of cheese. The fresh full-fat white soft cheese was perceived as more elastic, less salty and had higher flavor and odor scores than all low fat variants. It could be concluded that by using hydrocolloids significantly enhanced all organoleptic parameters to gain higher total scores, as compared with control LFC, and to be more close to their corresponding control for XG cheeses (91.04 & 89.06 vs. 91.80).