Interactive effects of salt and fat reduction on composition, rheology and functional properties of mozzarella-style cheese

Abstract

Owing to the risks associated with excessive dietary intake of fat and sodium, there is an increased consumer demand for food products, including cheese, with reduced fat and salt content. Research to date has focused mainly on the separate effects of reducing fat and salt. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the combined effects of reducing fat from~22% to 11% and salt from~1.7% to 1.0%, on the composition, rheology and melting properties of mozzarella cheese. A secondary objective was to investigate the effect of reducing the calcium content of the reduced-fat, reduced-salt cheese as a means of improving its properties. Reducing fat and salt content led to higher levels of protein and moisture, lower contents of moisture-in-non-fat substances, fat-in-dry matter and salt-inmoisture. These changes coincided with lower water binding capacity, lower primary proteolysis and increased hardness and chewiness in the unheated cheese, and with a lower flow and higher work to extend (EW) the heated cheese. Lowering the calcium content of the reduced-fat reduced-salt cheese increased the levels of moisture and moisture-in-non-fatsubstances, and reduced the protein content and the calcium-to-casein ratio; simultaneously, the unheated cheese had a higher water binding capacity, a reduced hardness and chewiness, while the heated cheese had higher flowability and a lower EW compared to the reduced-fat, reduced-salt cheese. Despite the mitigating effects of calcium reduction, the reduced-fat, reduced-salt, lower-calcium cheese was, nevertheless, firmer, harder, more cohesive and chewy, flowed less and had a higher EW than the full-fat, full-salt cheese.

Reduced‐sodium cheeses: Implications of reducing sodium chloride on cheese quality and safety

“…The authors observed increase in meltability with higher stringiness in cheeses salted at 1.06% compared to 1.78%. Similar trends have been reported in the concomitant studies where authors reported increase in flow on decreasing the NaCl content of Mozzarella cheeses (Ganesan et al., ; Henneberry, Wilkinson, Kilcawley, Kelly, & Guinee, ). Recently, Arboatti et al.…”

“…The authors observed increase in meltability with higher stringiness in cheeses salted at 1.06% compared to 1.78%. Similar trends have been reported in the concomitant studies where authors reported increase in flow on decreasing the NaCl content of Mozzarella cheeses Henneberry, Wilkinson, Kilcawley, Kelly, & Guinee, 2015). Recently, Arboatti et al (2014) observed decrease in crossover temperature on reducing NaCl content, which signifies that the T A B L E 5 Overview of published scientific information on textural, rheological, and functional attributes of RSCs…”

“…An inverse relationship of salt content with firmness, Gʹ and Gʹʹ was observed Rulikowska et al, 2013 Cantal The value of Gʹ and Gʹʹ decreases in experimental samples salted at 0.5% and 1.0% NaCl compared to cheeses salted at 2% NaCl Loudiyi et al, 2017 Halloumi No significant influence on hardness, cohesiveness, adhesiveness, and gumminess for the same age of cheeses prepared with mixture of NaCl: KCl (3:1, 1:1, and 1:3) and only NaCl Ayyash et al, 2011 Nabulsi, Feta, Kefalograviera No effect of salt treatment on the texture profile analysis (TPA) of experimental samples Katsiari et al, 1997Katsiari et al, , 1998Ayyash and Shah, 2011b Cheddar, Mozzarella Reduced salt cheeses exhibited significantly higher meltability compared with full salt variants Olson, 1982;McCarthy et al, 2016;Henneberry et al, 2015 Processed cheese Meltability was not affected on partial or full replacement of NaCl by KCl Patel et al, 2013 mozzarella cheese melts at lower temperature when salt content is decreased. The authors suggested that this might be associated with higher moisture content and higher a w of low sodium Mozzarella cheeses compared with control cheeses.…”

Hot brining of pasta filata cheese: effect of sodium and calcium chloride on composition, yield, and hardness

“…Pasta filata cheeses contain 0.5 to 4 g.100 g −1 sodium chloride, high-moisture mozzarella about 0.7 g.100 g −1 and low-moisture mozzarella approximately 1.5 g.100 g −1 sodium chloride (Angelis and Gobbetti 2011). Henneberry et al (2015) showed that the hardness of mozzarella cheese decreases with decreasing salt content. Changes in the chemical composition also influence the flow behavior of the plasticized cheese matrix during melting (Bähler et al 2015;Henneberry et al 2015).…”

“…Henneberry et al (2015) showed that the hardness of mozzarella cheese decreases with decreasing salt content. Changes in the chemical composition also influence the flow behavior of the plasticized cheese matrix during melting (Bähler et al 2015;Henneberry et al 2015). Salt can be incorporated into pasta filata cheese either by salting the minced curd, hot brining during cooking-stretching, cold brining during cooling, or combinations thereof (Guinee et al 2000).…”