Quality of mozzarella cheese: effect of milk source, starter culture and incubation temperature

Abstract

Mozzarella, originally made from buffalo milk, is an unripened, soft and white cheese in which melting and stretching properties are highly suitable for pizza making. Although, the demand for mozzarella cheese is increasing due to the expansion of pizza huts and fast food chains, very few dairy companies in Sri Lanka engage in its manufacture. There is a big potential to introduce mozzarella cheese making as a cottage level industry with easily available raw materials. A 3-factor factorial experiment in a Complete Randomized Design was carried out to find out the combined effect of milk source buffalo milk & buffalo milk: cow milk at 1:1 ratio), starter culture (Direct Vat Set & commercial yoghurtJ and incubation temperature (32 & 42"C) on quality of mozzarella cheese. Significantly [P<0.05) higher pH and yield of cheese was observed when the cheese milk was incubated at 32"C irrespective of the milk source and the starter culture used. Market control had the lowest % moisture and highest % of total solids compared to the experimental cheeses. Meltability of cheese was observed to be significantly [P<0.05) higher in the market control which could be due to the storage effect. Cheese made using combination of cow and buffalo milk with Direct Vat Set culture and incubated at 42"C had better sensory characters compared to the other treatments and was comparable to the market control.