Development of a whey beverage with higher sensory qualities and a better shelf-life.

Abstract

heddar cheese whey is a byproduet of cheddar cheese industry which is an excellent source of protein, minerals and lactose. At present, most of the cheese manufacturing plants in Sri Lanka discard whey through waterways causing environmental pollution. Thus, there is a great interest growing in the industry to utilize whey in a profitable manner. Therefore, an experiment was carried out to develop a whey beverage with higher sensory qualities and a better shelf life. Defatted and deproteinized whey was prepared according to the standard procedures and mixed with 7.5% sugar, 10% citric acid and 0.006% sorbic acid. Five different beverages were prepared adding five flavours namely mango, strawberry, vanilla, lemon and ginger and compared with a non flavoured beverage sensorily. Physico-chemical, microbiological and shelf life studies were carried out for products having better sensory attributes in two different packaging materials. According to the sensory evaluation, strawberry flavoured whey beverage had the most preferred taste followed by mango flavour. With respect of taste, non flavoured whey beverage had the lowest mean score which might have been due to its instinct flavour and saltiness. Highest score for appearance was obtained by vanilla flavoured beverage. However, significant differences were not observed in appearance between other treatments. Both Mango and strawberry flavoured whey beverages had higher score for aroma as well, than the other treatments suggesting their potential for future use. Strawberry and mango flavoured whey beverages were selected for further studies based on the results of the sensory evaluation. Initially, there was a difference ið€€° Standard Plate Count (SPC) among the beverages. There was a gradual increase of SPC during the storage period in all the treatments. The samples stored in bottles had lower standard plate counts compared with the samples stored in polyethylene sachets during the storage period of 30 days at 6 °C. All the whey beverage samples were negative for coliforms. Initial acidity values were similar (0.32%) in all the beverage samples and there was an increment during the storage period of 30 days at 6 °C. Acidity was lowest in mango flavoured whey beverage stored in bottles after 30 days of storage period while it was highest in mango flavoured whey beverage stored in polyethylene sachets and the values were within the acceptable limits. According to the above study it can be concluded that, there is a possibility of utilizing cheddar cheese whey to prepare a whey based beverage with acceptable organoleptic and microbiological qualities with better storage life.