Effect of different types of milks and cultures on the rheological characteristics of Teleme cheese

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Abstract

Teleme cheese was made from sheep’s milk, or goat’s milk or cow’s milk using a thermophilic culture, or a mesophilic culture or a mixture of thermophilic–mesophilic culture. The effect of different types of milk and cultures on textural characteristics of Teleme cheese was examined, during storage. The force at the point of fracture, the compression at the point of fracture and the hardness decreased during the storage period, regardless of the type of milk and culture used. Goat’s milk resulted in harder cheeses, with a higher force at the point of fracture and a higher compression at the point of fracture than cheeses made from sheep’s or cow’s milk, regardless of the culture used and the age examined. Cheeses made from sheep’s or cow’s milk did not differ significantly in the above parameters. Mesophilic culture resulted in cheeses with significantly higher hardness, compression and force at the point of fracture compared to those of cheeses made from thermophilic culture, regardless of kind of milk and the age of cheeses examined. Mixed culture, sometimes behaved as the thermophilic culture and sometimes as the mesophilic culture.

Introduction

Texture is one of the most important characteristics of cheese that determines identity and acceptability. With this property the consumer first identifies and judges the specific variety. The textures of the various types of cheese are clearly so different, but factors that determine changes in texture in all varieties are basically the same, since the components of the cheese are the same for all the varieties. Only the proportions of the components differ (Lawrence, Creamer, & Gilles, 1987). All of the main components of a cheese-protein, fat and water (brine)—affects its rheological behavior and therefore its textural properties. The cheese structure is composed of a protein (casein) matrix interspersed with fat globules and water, some of which is bound to the casein molecules. The casein network is formed mainly from helical chains, which gives the matrix a certain level of elasticity (Prentice, 1987). Other factors that may affect cheese texture are the type of milk used (Tsigkros, Folland, Moate, & Brennan, 2003), storage temperature (Fedrick and Dulley, 1984, Kandarakis et al., 2001), starter culture (Pappas, Kondyli, Voutsinas, & Mallatou, 1996a) and salt concentration (Prasad & Alvarez, 1999).

The most common method employed to study the mechanical properties of cheeses is the uniaxial force-compression: a constant rate of compression is applied to the sample and the resulting stress is continuously recorded. The method is suitable for the study of the rheological parameters of cheese on ripening and has been employed in French cheeses (Antoniou, Petridis, Raphaelides, Ben Omar, & Kesteloot, 2000), Cheddar cheese (Hort, Grys, & Woodman, 1997), Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (Noel, Zannoni, & Hunter, 1996), Swiss-type cheese (Bachmann, Butikofer, & Meyer, 1999) and Gouda cheese (Spangler, Jensen, Amundson, Olson, & Hill, 1990). The Instron universal testing machine (Instron Corporation, Canton, MA) has become a valuable and extensively used tool in the study of food texture and has made it possible to study different types of cheese (Bertola et al., 2000, Maifreni et al., 2002, Shama and Sherman, 1973, Vernon-Carter and Sherman, 1978, Chen et al., 1979). The application of instrumental texture profile analysis (Sherman, 1979) with two successive compression cycles has been widely used for food analysis (Bourne, 1982).

Starter cultures are used widely in cheese production. Their main function is the production of acid, which is important for the physical characteristics of cheese curd. Starter cultures also contribute to proteolysis. Teleme cheese is a white-brined cheese. White-brined cheeses represent a category of cheeses that owe their characters primarily to a strong acidity and a high salt content. In the production of Feta and Teleme cheeses traditional yogurt is used as starter by the traditional cheese-makers, while mixture of commercial starters, including mesophilic starters, are used in industrial production (Anifantakis, 1991). Traditional yogurt culture contains non-defined thermophilic microorganisms, but mainly it contains Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus, whereas commercial starters consist of well-defined species.

Despite the fact that there are several studies on various aspects of Teleme cheese, there is a lack of information concerning its textural properties. Raphaelides and Antoniou (1996) reported the effect of ripening on the mechanical properties of traditional and ultrafiltrated Teleme cheeses, made from cow’s milk, using a starter culture consisted of Streptococcus lactis and Lactobacillus bulgaricus. Also, Raphelides, Antoniou, and Petridis (1995) evaluated the texture of traditional and ultrafiltrated Teleme cheeses using instrumental and sensory texture profile analysis.

In the present study the effect of different cultures (thermophilic, mesophilic or a mixture of them) on the textural characteristics of Teleme cheeses made from sheep’s, goat’s or cow’s milk, during storage, was investigated.

Section snippets

Experimental design

Teleme cheese was manufactured using: (a) ewe’s milk of the “Boutsiko” breed of the Agricultural Research Station of Ioannina (b) goat’s milk from a local native goat population and (c) cow’s milk from a herd of Friesian cows, near the Dairy Research Institute, Ioannina where the cheese-makings took place. Each kind of milk was used in making Teleme cheese with three starter culture variables, that is: (i) a freeze-dried yogurt thermophilic culture (T), FYS-11 (Rhone-Poulen Laboratorium, Dange,

Results and discussion

Teleme cheeses made from sheep’s milk using the thermophilic, mixed or mesophilic culture were transferred to cold room at 24, 16 and 12 days, respectively, whereas cheeses made from goats’ milk using the thermophilic culture, mixed or mesophilic culture were transferred to cold room at 22, 13, 11 days respectively, and cheese made from cow’s milk using thermophilic, mixed or mesophilic culture were transferred to cold room at 23, 17 and 15 days, respectively (Pappa et al., 2006). The dates of

Conclusions

The statistical examination of the data has shown that: Goats’ milk resulted in harder cheeses than the cheeses made from the other two kinds of milk, regardless of the culture used and the age examined. Also, the values of force and compression at the point of fracture of cheeses made with goats’ milk were higher than those found of cheeses made with the other two types of milk, regardless of the kind of culture used. Cheeses made from ewes’ and cows’ milk did not differ significantly in

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Hansen and Rhone-Poulen, Hellas for donating the cultures.

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