ARTICLE IN PRESS

International Dairy Journal 14 (2004) 365373

Textural, melting and sensory properties of low-fat fresh kashar

cheeses produced by using fat replacers
Nurcan Koca*, Mustafa Metin
Department of Food Engineering, Engineering Faculty, Ege University, Bornova, Izmir 35100, Turkey
Received 17 January 2003; accepted 7 August 2003

Abstract

The textural, melting and sensory properties of low-fat fresh kashar cheeses (B70% fat reduction) produced by using two protein-
based fat replacers (1.0% w/w SimplessesD-100 and 1.0% w/w Dairy-Lot) and one carbohydrate-based fat replacer (5.0% w/w
RaftilinesHP) were examined during the storage period for 90 days. The low-fat cheese without fat replacer and the full-fat cheese
were also produced, for comparison.
The moisture contents and the values of moisture in non-fat substance of the cheeses made with fat replacers were signicantly
higher than low fat control cheese, whereas protein contents were signicantly lower. The use of fat replacers decreased the hardness,
springiness, gumminess and chewiness and increased cohesiveness. SimplessesD-100 corrected all appearance defects determined in
low fat cheese. SimplessesD-100 and RaftilinesHP produced an improving effect on avour, texture and overall acceptability of
low-fat cheese until the 30th day of storage. The sensory scores of the cheeses with these fat replacers decreased due to excessive
softening and salty avour for SimplessesD-100 and undesirable colour, softening and off-avour for RaftilinesHP on the 60th
and 90th days of storage. Dairy-Lot had no effect on the textural and sensory properties of low-fat cheese. The use of RaftilinesHP
among fat replacers caused a slight increase in meltability. These results indicated that SimplessesD-100 and RaftilinesHP can
improve the texture and sensory properties of low-fat fresh kashar cheese. However, further investigations are needed to prevent the
defects which were shown after the 60th day of storage.
r 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Low fat kashar cheese; Fat replacer; Texture; Sensory properties

1. Introduction & Solano-Lopez, 1999). Removal of fat from cheese

Kashar cheese is a semi-hard Turkish traditional
cheese which is one of the cheeses consumed most in
Turkey. According to Turkish Standards, this cheese is
classied as fresh kashar cheese and old or matured
kashar cheese in terms of ripening (Turkish Standards
(TS), 1999). In recent years the production of fresh
kashar cheese has increased in contrast to matured
kashar cheese because of the economical reasons.
Because of increasing consumer trend for low fat
products, the production of reduced- or low-fat cheeses
has signicantly increased since 1980 (Molina, Alvarez,
Ramos, Olano, & Lopez-Fandino, 2000). However, fat
has an important role in the development of avour,
texture and appearance of cheese (Sipahioglu, Alveraz,
*Corresponding author. Fax: +90-232-3427592.
E-mail address: nkoca@food.ege.edu.tr (N. Koca).
causes textural, functional and sensory defects such as
rubbery texture, lack of avour, bitterness, off-avour,
poor meltability and undesirable colour (Fife, McMa-
hon, & Oberg, 1996; McMahon, Alleyne, Fife, & Oberg,
1996; Sipahioglu et al., 1999; Mistry, 2001; Romeih,
Michaelidou, Biliaderis, & Zerridis, 2002). Therefore,
several strategies have been proposed in order to
improve the avour and texture of low-fat cheeses.
These strategies can be collected in three titles (Drake &
Swanson, 1995; Mistry, 2001): making-process modi-
cations; starter culture selection and use of adjunct
cultures; use of fat replacers.
Fat replacers are ingredients intended to be used in
the place of natural fats with the objective of obtain-
ing a reduction in the caloric value (Huyghebaert,
Dewettinck, & de Greyt, 1996). They are categorized
as fat substitutes which are fat-based and as fat mime-
tics which are protein- and carbohydrate-based. Fat

0958-6946/$ - see front matter r 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.idairyj.2003.08.006
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
366 N. Koca, M. Metin / International Dairy Journal 14 (2004) 365373
mimetics have often been recommended to be used in
cheese products consisting of mainly microparticulated
protein- and carbohydrate-based materials (Romeih
et al., 2002). These materials are used for improving
sensory and functional properties of low-fat cheeses by
binding water and by improving texture and yield
(Drake, Bolyston, & Swanson, 1996a). Therefore, they
give a sense of lubricity and creaminess (Romeih et al.,
2002). They, because of their particulate nature, can also
act as light scattering centers and increase the opaque-
ness of low-fat cheese (McMahon et al., 1996).
The objective of this study was to determine the
effects of SimplessesD-100, Dairy-Lot and Raftili-
nesHP on the textural, melting and sensory properties
of low-fat fresh kashar cheese and also to nd the
correlation between these properties. The effects of the
fat reduction on these properties were also determined.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Materials
The whole cows milk and skim cows milk were
supplied by Pinar Dairy Company. Streptococcus
thermophilus E was used as the starter culture (Wiesby
GmbH & Co. KG) and b-carotene as the colouring
agent (Roche). Fat replacers used were SimplessesD-
100 (NutraSweet Co.), which is the microparticulated
whey protein, supplied by Pinar Dairy Company and
Dairy-Lot (Pzer Inc. Co.), whey protein concentrate,
and RaftilinesHP (Orafti), inulin, each supplied by
Dora Company in Turkey.
2.2. Cheese production
Cheese production was carried out in Dairy Pilot
Plant of Food Engineering Department of Ege Uni-
versity. For the production process, observations
obtained from dairies were applied to pilot plant scale.
Low-fat cheese samples were produced by using 1.0% of
SimplessesD-100 (SM), 1.0% of Dairy-Lot (DL) or
5.0% of RaftilinesHP (RF). Full fat (FF) and low-fat
(LF) control cheeses without fat replacer were also
produced, for comparison. The fat content of milk was
standardized to 2.5% for full-fat and 0.6% for low-fat
cheese production. 65 kg of standardized milk were used
for each batch. Fat replacers were added to cheese milk
at 30
C and mixed. After the mixing process, all batches
were pasteurised at 65
C for 30 min and then cooled to
34
C. b-carotene (0.7 mg kg1), starter culture
(9 mL kg1) and CaCl2 (2 mg kg1) were added. When
the pH of milk was at 6.26.3, rennet diluted with pure
water was added to milk. Cutting was done 50 min later.
The curd was cut with a curd knife in the shape of 1 cm3
cubes. The cut curd was allowed to settle for 10 min.
Cooking was done by increasing the temperature within
30 min from 34
C to 40
C. The increase rate was 1
C
for every 5 min. At the same time the cheese curd was
agitated. At the end of the cooking, 20 kg of whey were
drained from each batch. The cheese curd was fermented
until it reached 5.25.25 pH. The remaining whey was
then drained. The curd was hand-stretched in a 6%
brine at 72
C for full-fat cheese, at 85
C for low-fat
control cheese, at 75
C for low-fat cheese with
SimplessesD-100 and at 80
C for low-fat cheeses with
Dairy-Lot and RaftilinesHP. They were put into
cylindrical plastic moulds and turned 30 min later to
provide at surface. All cheeses were cooled in room
temperature and the moulds were removed. After that,
the cheeses were allowed to gain their yellow colour for
24 h at 1820
C. One block of fresh kashar cheese was
approximately 400 g. The blocks of cheeses were vacuum
and shrink packaged in Cryovac bags and stored at 4
6
C for 90 days. Cheese samples were taken for chemical
analyses on the 7th day and for textural, melting and
sensory analyses on the 1st, 7th, 30th, 60th and 90th
days of storage. Cheese was manufactured in triplicate
for each group.
2.3. Chemical analyses
The moisture content of cheese samples was deter-
mined by gravimetric method (International Dairy
Federation (IDF), 1982), fat content by Van-Gulik
method (Turkish Standards (TS), 1978) and total
nitrogen content by Kjeldahl method (AOAC, 1995).
The protein content of cheeses was calculated by
multiplying the total nitrogen content by 6.38 and the
moisture in non-fat substance was calculated according
to Codex Alimentarius for Milk and Milk Products
(Codex Alimentarius (CA), 2000).
2.4. Textural analyses
Texture prole analysis (TPA) parameters were
determined by using Instron Universal Testing Machine,
Model 1140 (Instron Ltd., UK) equipped with a 50
500 kg load cell. A at plate probe with 57 mm of
diameter was attached to moving crosshead. Cylindrical
samples were prepared using a metal borer at 46
C and
wrapped with plastic stretch cover. Samples were taken
at least 1 cm away from cheese surface. They were
left at 25
C for almost 30 min until they reached
the denite temperature (1971
C). The central tem-
perature of a control specimen was measured by a
thermocouple. The dimensions of cheese specimens were
25 mm both in diameter and height. The operating
conditions were: crosshead speed 50 mm min1, chart
speed 200 mm min1, 80% of compression ratio from
the initial height of the sample in two bites. The texture
prole parameters were determined using the TPA
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
N. Koca, M. Metin / International Dairy Journal 14 (2004) 365373
Fig. 1. The TPA curve of full-fat fresh kashar cheese (springiness=
length2/length1, adhesiveness=A3 ; cohesiveness=A2 =A1 ; gumminess=
hardness  cohesiveness, chewiness=gumminess  springiness).
curve, an example, given in Fig. 1: the compressive force
(kg) recorded at maximum compression during the rst
bite as a measure of cheese hardness (Katsiari,
Voutsinas, & Kondyli, 2002); the distance of the
detected height of the product on the second compres-
sion divided by the original compression distance
(length2/length1) as a measure of springiness (Anon-
ymous, 2002); the negative force area (A3, cm2) during
the rst bite as a measure of adhesiveness (Antoniou,
Petrides, Raphaelides, Ben Omar, & Kesteloot, 2000);
the ratio of positive area during the second compression
to the positive area during the rst compression (A2 =A1 )
as a measure of cheese cohesiveness; the product of
hardness  cohesiveness (kg) as a measure of gummi-
ness; the product of gumminess  springiness (kg) as a
measure of chewiness (Katsiari et al., 2002). Texture
values were the mean of three replicates tested each
sampling time.
2.5. Meltability
Meltability of cheese samples was determined by two
methods: Schreiber test and a method with a test tube.
For Schreiber test, cheese samples were prepared using a
glass borer and a sharp knife at 46
C. The specimens
(4.1 cm  4 mm) were placed in a Petri dish and put into
an electrical oven preheated to 230
C for 5 min. They
were then removed and cooled for 30 min at room
temperature. Specimen expansion was measured using a
scale having six lines (AE) marked on a concentric set
of circles as described by Kosikowski (1982). Schreiber
meltability was given as the mean of the six readings on
the arbitrary scale of 010 units (Park, Rosenau, &
Peleg, 1984).
For the second method, 10 g of grated cheese were
placed in a test tube (32 mm  250 mm) and were packed
to form a plug at the bottom. The height of cheese was
marked. The test tube was covered with an aluminium
foil and holes were made to let the hot gas escape during
heating. The test tube was kept vertically in a
367
refrigerator at 4
C for 30 min and then horizontally in
an oven heated at 104
C for 60 min (Poduval & Mistry,
1999). Meltability was measured as ow distance (mm)
of melted cheese.
2.6. Sensory evaluation
Sensory evaluation was carried out with scoring test
by nine panelists who are the members of Food
Engineering Department. The panelists were selected
on the basis of their interest in sensory evaluation of
cheeses and trained by using commercial fresh kashar
cheeses. The cheeses were evaluated for appearance,
avour, texture and overall acceptability using a score
from 1 to 5. The equivalents of sensory characteristic
scores were determined using commercial cheese sam-
ples obtained from local markets. The samples were
presented to panelists as 1520 g of cheese with water
and bread for them to clean their palates between
samples. Panelists were also requested to tick the defects
on the panel scale in order to determine the reasons of
decrease in scores.
2.7. Statistical analyses
One-way analysis of variance for the data of chemical
analyses (the factor being the fat replacer addition) and
two-way analysis of variance for the data of textural,
melting and sensory analyses (the factors being the fat
replacer addition and the storage period) were carried
out to determine the signicance of the individual
differences. Signicant means were compared using
Duncan test on the level of Po0:01 and standard
deviations for mean values of chemical analyses were
also calculated. Simple correlations were performed
between the textural, melting and sensory properties of
the cheese samples. All the statistical analyses were
conducted using the SPSS (Version 8.0) commercial
statistical package.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Compositions of cheeses
The compositions of full- and low-fat cheeses are
given in Table 1. The moisture and protein contents of
low-fat control cheese were signicantly higher than
those of full-fat cheese. Similar results were also
observed by other authors (Katsiari & Voutsinas,
.
1994; Bryant, Ustunol, & Steffe, 1995; Ustunol,
Kawachi, & Steffe, 1995; Fenelon & Guinee, 1999;
Rudan, Barbano, Yun, & Kindstedt, 1999; Fenelon &
Guinee, 2000; Fenelon, OConnor, & Guinee, 2000).
The use of fat replacer affected the values of moisture,
protein and moisture in non-fat substance of low-fat
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
368 N. Koca, M. Metin / International Dairy Journal 14 (2004) 365373
Table 1
Chemical composition of cheese samples (mean17standard deviation)
Cheese samples
FF2 LF
Moisture (%) 47.78 71.02
a
55.24 72.33
b
Fat (%) 24.50a70.40 7.33b70.58
Protein (%) 24.71a70.59 32.95c71.63
MNFS (%)3 63.28a71.02 59.60b72.15
Moisture/protein4 1.93 1.63
abc
Means within a row without a common superscript differ (Po0:01).
1
Mean values of three replicates.
2
FF: full-fat cheese, LF: low-fat cheese, SM: low-fat cheese with SimplessesD-100, DL: low -fat cheese with Dairy-Lot, RF: low-fat cheese with
RaftilinesHP.
3
Moisture in non-fat substance.
4
It was calculated using the means of moisture and protein.
cheese (Po0:01). One of the most important strategies
for improving the properties of lower fat cheese is to
increase its moisture content sufciently to provide a
ratio of moisture to protein or moisture in non-fat
substance in the lower fat cheese that is equal or higher
than its full fat counterpart (Broadbent, McMahon,
Oberg, & Welker, 2001). Fortunately, the moisture
contents and the values of the moisture in non-fat
substance of low-fat cheeses with fat replacers were
signicantly higher than those of low-fat control cheese
whereas the protein contents were signicantly lower
(Po0:01). Especially the value of the moisture in non-
fat substance of the cheese with SimplessesD-100 was
equal to that of full-fat cheese because of the increase of
water binding capacity of the cheese matrix. Moreover,
the ratios of moisture to protein for low-fat cheeses with
fat replacers were higher than that of low-fat control
cheese. The increased moisture content of low-fat
cheeses produced by using fat replacers indicated that
curd syneresis was retarted during cheese making. It has
been suggested that water can bind directly to fat
replacers and the fat replacers can interfere with the
shrinkage of the casein matrix. Therefore, this lowers the
driving force involved in expelling water from curd
particles (McMahon et al., 1996). Similar results to
present study have been obtained by Drake, et al.
(1996a), McMahon et al. (1996), Rudan, Barbano and
Kindstedt (1998), Sipahioglu et al. (1999), Zalazar et al.
(2002) and Romeih et al. (2002) for low-fat Cheddar,
low-fat Mozzarella, low-fat feta cheese, low-fat white-
brined cheese and low-fat soft cheeses. However,
Ku@. uk .
. oner (1996) found that the low-fat Cheddar
cheese had a similar protein content to the low-fat
cheeses containing Simplesse and Dairy-Lo.
3.2. Textural properties
The mean values of the TPA parameters are given in
Table 2. The full-fat cheese was signicantly softer than
SM DL RF
59.20 70.55
c
57.11 71.13
bc
57.88bc70.80
6.67b71.15 6.42b70.14 6.17b70.29
29.22b70.69 31.02bc71.79 28.07ab71.32
63.43a70.41 61.03ab71.30 61.68ab70.87
2.02 1.84 2.06
the low-fat cheese without fat replacer (Po0:01). It is
not suprising result because fat breaks up the protein
matrix and plays the role of lubricant to provide
smoothness and a softer texture (Romeih et al., 2002).
The low fat cheese was the hardest cheese due to its high
protein content. The low-fat cheeses containing Sim-
plessesD-100 and RaftilinesHP had signicantly lower
hardness values than low-fat control cheese (Po0:01).
On the other hand, the use of Dairy-Lot had no effect
on the hardness values. This situation is very clear in
Fig. 2a. The positive effect of SimplessesD-100 and
RaftilinesHP on the hardness of low-fat kashar cheese
could be attributed to both their high contents of
moisture in non-fat substance and the ratio of moisture
to protein and also to total ller volume of the low-fat
cheeses produced by fat replacers. An increase in ller
volume (moisture and fat) results in a decrease in the
amount of protein matrix. Thus less force is required for
a given deformation and the composite becomes softer
(Rudan et al., 1998). The ratios of moisture to protein of
LF, SM, DL and RF was calculated as 1.63, 2.02, 1.84
and 2.06, respectively. This order exactly tted into the
order of hardness values of low-fat cheeses. The
decrease in hardness values determined during storage
was not signicant (P > 0:01). In the literature, it was
reported that the use of different fat replacers decreased
the TPA hardness of low-fat cheese (Drake, Herrett,
Boylston, & Swanson, 1996b; Fenelon & Guinee,
1997; Rudan et al., 1998; Sipahioglu et al., 1999;
Bhaskaracharya & Shah, 2001; Lobato-Calleros,
Robles-Martinez, Caballero-Perez, Aguirre-Manduja-
no, & Vernon-Carter, 2001; Romeih et al., 2002). In
contrast to these ndings, Stevens and Shah (2002)
found that the cheeses containing Maltrins were harder
than skim milk Mozzarella cheese.
It was observed that both the difference of means and
the changes in the hardness values of all cheeses showed
a similar trend to the changes in the gumminess and
chewiness values during storage. A signicant positive
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
N. Koca, M. Metin / International Dairy Journal 14 (2004) 365373 369

Table 2
Effect of treatment and storage time on the mean values of TPA parameters

TPA parameters

Hardness Springiness Adhesiveness Cohesiveness Gumminess Chewiness

1 a a b a a
Treatment (n 15) FF 9.49 0.270 0.008 0.260 2.45 0.71a
LF 38.52c 0.559c 0a 0.280a 11.15c 6.45c
SM 18.75b 0.400b 0.018c 0.324ab 5.44b 2.19ab
DL 31.02c 0.530c 0a 0.298ab 9.42c 4.98c
RF 17.02ab 0.488c 0.005ab 0.367b 5.88b 3.00b

Signicance of F 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.003 0.000 0.000

Storage time (n 15) 1. 27.80 0.451 0a 0.251a 7.13 3.21

7. 21.48 0.474 0a 0.275ab 5.70 2.91
30. 25.34 0.451 0.002a 0.318abc 7.80 4.05
60. 22.39 0.441 0.010b 0.338bc 7.31 3.74
90. 18.59 0.462 0.019c 0.355c 6.39 3.42
Signicance of F 0.059 0.352 0.000 0.001 0.308 0.572
abc
Means within a column without a common superscript differ (Po0:01). Lack of superscripts in a column indicates no signicant differences
among means (P > 0:01).
1
FF: full-fat cheese, LF: low-fat cheese, SM: low-fat cheese with SimplessesD-100, DL: low-fat cheese with Dairy-Lot, RF: low-fat cheese with
RaftilinesHP.
 Po0:01:

60 0.7 0.6
50 0.5
hardness (kg)

cohesiveness
springiness

40 0.5 0.4
30 0.3
20 0.3 0.2
10 0.1
0 0.1 0.0
1 7 30 60 90 1 7 30 60 90 1 7 30 60 90
(a) storage time (day) (b) storage time (day) (c) storage time (day)
Fig. 2. The hardness, springiness and cohesiveness values of cheese samples during storage ((E) FF: full-fat cheese; () LF: low-fat cheese; (m) SM:
low-fat cheese with SimplessesD-100; (K) DL: low-fat cheese with Dairy-Lot; and () RF: low-fat cheese with RaftilinesHP).

correlation among these three TPA parameters was also
found (Po0:01).
Full-fat cheese had signicantly lower springiness
values than low-fat cheese during storage (Po0:01; Fig.
2b). SimplessesD-100 had a signicant positive effect
on springiness values of low-fat cheese (Po0:01)
whereas Dairy-Lot and RaftilinesHP had no signi-
cant effect (P > 0:01). Romeih et al. (2002) found that
the addition of SimplessesD-100 and Novagel de-
creased the values of springiness of low-fat white-brined
cheese. However, Zalazar et al. (2002) observed that the
use of 2% Dairy-Lot had no effect on the springiness
values of low-fat Cremoso Argentino cheese.
The adhesiveness started on the 30th day of storage
for the cheese containing SimplessesD-100 and on the
60th day for the cheese containing RaftilinesHP and
the values increased in the following days of storage.
The low-fat control cheese and low-fat cheese with
Dairy-Lot had no adhesiveness during the 90-day
storage. On the other hand, full-fat cheese was slightly
adhesive on the 60th day of storage but this cheese was
in the same group as low-fat control cheese statistically
(P > 0:01).
It was found that the mean of cohesiveness value of
low-fat control cheese was higher than that of full-fat
cheese. However, this was not signicant (P > 0:01). The
use of fat replacers increased cohesiveness values.
Although all cheeses showed the similar trend until the
30th day of storage, the cohesiveness values of the low-
fat cheeses, especially the one with RaftilinesHP,
increased on the 60th and 90th days of storage (Fig.
2c). On the other hand, a decrease was observed in the
values of full-fat cheese.
As a result, as the fat content of fresh kashar cheese
decreased, all the TPA parameters except adhesiveness
increased. The similar results were observed by Bryant
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
370 N. Koca, M. Metin / International Dairy Journal 14 (2004) 365373

et al. (1995) who reported that as fat in cheese decreased,
and the moisture increased, hardness, springiness and
cohesiveness determined with Instron increased and
adhesiveness decreased for Cheddar cheese and also
by Rudan et al. (1999) who stated that the decrease of
the fat content of Mozzarella cheese resulted in the
increase of the TPA hardness, cohesiveness and springi-
ness. The other important result of present study was
that the use of the fat replacers except Dairy-Lot
improved the textural properties of low-fat fresh
kashar cheese. All fat replacers used in this study were
fat mimetics which are polar and water soluble
compounds. The polar nature of these fat mimetics is
an advantage in that additional water is bound in cheese
containing fat mimetics. Increase in moisture content of
cheese results in improving the texture of low-fat cheese
(Drake & Swanson, 1995). The possible reason why
Dairy-Lot fails may be the use of standard heat
treatment at 65
C for 30 min in cheese pasteurisation.
Recommended usage of Dairy-Lot requires a heat
treatment at 80
C for 10 min (in a portion of the milk)
to bind the whey proteins in Dairy-Lot to the casein
micelles in milk through bonding with k-kasein (McMa-
hon et al., 1996). The other possible reason may be that
Dairy-Lot has a much lower microparticulation size
than SimplessesD-100 according to McMahon et al.
(1996). Ma, Drake, Barbosa-Canovas, and Swanson
(1997) found that the addition of protein, whey-based
protein did not improve the protein matrix of the low-
fat Cheddar cheese and a carbohydrate fat mimetic
improved the rheological properties, but did not
completely simulate the protein matrix of cheese. This
result is not in agreement with the result observed for
SimplessesD-100.
3.3. Melting properties
Melting properties of fresh kashar cheese are very
important because this cheese is used as an ingredient in
sandwiches and pizzas in Turkey. The results of both
tests are shown in Table 3. The full-fat cheese had
signicantly better meltability than that of low fat
cheese (Po0:01). However, the use of fat replacers had
no positive effect on the melting properties of low-fat
cheese except RaftilinesHP which caused a slight
increase in meltability. According to Rudan et al.
(1998), materials based on carbohydrate and protein
do not behave like materials based on fat under various
conditions, especially when heated. There was no
signicant change in meltability determined by the
method with test tube during the 90 days of storage
(P > 0:01) but a signicant increase in Schreiber melt-
ability was observed on the 7th day of storage as clearly
shown in Fig. 3 (Po0:01). In contrast to these results,
Zalazar et al. (2002) found that low-fat cheeses without
fat replacer and with Dairy-Lo had good melting
behaviour, the reason for which was reported by these
researchers the fact that the ability to melt is preserved if
the fat reduction is accompanied by a higher moisture
level. Low-fat cheese produced with MaltrinsM100 was
reported to melt well by Stevens and Shah (2002). In
contrast to present study, Fife et al. (1996) stated that
the 28-day storage increased the meltability of low-fat
Mozzarella cheese.
3.4. Sensory properties
The means of the sensory scores of all sensory
characteristics are given in Table 3. A signicant

Table 3
Effect of treatment and storage time on the mean values of meltability and sensory properties

Meltability Sensory properties

Flow distance (mm) Schreiber test Appearance Texture Flavour Overall acceptability
1 a c a c c
Treatment (n 15) FF 115.7 7.13 4.08 3.96 3.92 3.96a
LF 74.6b 1.71ab 3.65b 2.88a 2.97a 2.93c
SM 55.1b 2.05ab 4.14a 3.46b 3.51b 3.49b
DL 67.2b 1.57a 3.90ab 3.14ab 2.97a 2.96c
RF 89.0ab 2.79b 3.66b 3.42b 3.32ab 3.29b
Signicance of F 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000

Storage time (n 15) 1. 66.6 2.08a 3.83 3.29 3.35ab 3.32ab

7. 94.0 3.33b 3.97 3.48 3.41ab 3.43a
30. 89.7 3.39b 3.99 3.56 3.62b 3.55a
60. 77.5 3.48b 3.94 3.32 3.26ab 3.25ab
90. 71.3 2.97ab 3.70 3.21 3.07a 3.08b
Signicance of F 0.196 0.006 0.125 0.121 0.004 0.005
abc
Means within a column without a common superscript differ (Po0:01). Lack of superscripts in a column indicates no signicant differences
among means (P > 0:01).
1
FF: full-fat cheese, LF: low-fat cheese, SM: low-fat cheese with SimplessesD-100, DL: low-fat cheese with Dairy-Lot, RF: low-at cheese with
RaftilinesHP.
 Po0:01:
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
N. Koca, M. Metin / International Dairy Journal 14 (2004) 365373 371

9 5
4.5
8 4

flavour (score)
4

texture (score)
7 3.5
3 3
6 2.5
meltability

5 2 2
4 1.5
1 1
3 1 7 30 60 90 1 7 30 60 90
2 (a) storage time (day) (b) storage time (day)

1 Fig. 4. The texture and avour scores of cheese samples during storage
0 ((E) FF: full-fat cheese; () LF: low-fat cheese; (m) SM: low-fat
1 7 30 60 90 cheese with SimplessesD-100; (K) DL: low-fat cheese with Dairy-
storage time (day) Lot; and () RF: low-fat cheese with RaftilinesHP).

Fig. 3. The Schreiber meltability of cheese samples during storage

((E) FF: full-fat cheese, () LF: low-fat cheese, (m) SM: low-fat
cheese with SimplessesD-100, (K) DL: low-fat cheese with Dairy-
Lot, () RF: low-fat cheese with RaftilinesHP).
difference (Po0:01) was observed between the scores of
all sensory properties of full-fat and low-fat control
cheeses. The low-fat control cheese had a more
translucent surface and denser colour than full-fat
cheese. The reason for translucency could be lack of
the fat which provides opacity in cheese (Mistry &
Anderson, 1993). Rudan et al. (1999) stated that the fat
reduction made the Mozzarella cheese less white and
more translucent. Merrill, Oberg, and McMahon (1994)
also observed that fat reduction produced a greenish tint
colour in the unmelted low-fat Mozzarella cheese. The
colour of the low-fat fresh kashar cheeses containing fat
replacers was different from that of low-fat control
cheese. Moreover, the use of SimplessesD-100 corrected
all appearance defects which were determined in low-fat
fresh kashar cheese. The mean score of this cheese was
also slightly higher than that of full-fat cheese. However,
the addition of Dairy-Lot and RaftilinesHP had no
signicant effect (P > 0:01) on the appearance scores
because of matter surface for DL and orange-red and
nonhomogeneous colour for RF. Similarly, Drake et al.
(1996a) stated that low-fat Cheddar cheese containing
NovageltNC200, which is a carbohydrate-based fat
replacer, was a deeper orange-red. Romeih et al. (2002)
also reported that the low-fat white-brined cheese with
SimplessesD-100 received a higher appearance score
than the low-fat cheese without fat replacer and the one
with Novagel and a similar score to full-fat cheese.
The mean texture and avour scores of full-fat cheese
were signicantly higher than those of low-fat cheeses
(Po0:01). The effects of SimplessesD-100 and Raftili-
nesHP preventing undesirable hardness, rubbery tex-
ture and lack of avour on the texture and avour
scores were signicant. Although the low-fat cheeses
with RaftilinesHP and SimplessesD-100 received
closer scores to full-fat cheese until the 30th day of
storage, a sharp decrease was observed for both criteria
on the 60th and 90th days of storage due to the excessive
softening and salty avour for SM and softening and
off-avour for RF (Fig. 4a and b). Zalazar et al. (2002)
determined high moisture content for low-fat Cremoso
Argentino cheese with Dairy-Lo and also reported that
this moisture content was a problem for the shelf life of
this product, as a consequence of excessive softening
observed after 30th day of ripening. The texture scores
of LF and DL were lower than those of others at the
beginning of the storage. However, at the end of the
storage, the texture scores of them were nearly the same
as those of full-fat cheese.
A big similarity was observed in the scores of texture,
avour and overall acceptability during storage. The
results of sensory evaluation show that the texture and
avour of cheeses affected the overall acceptability more
than the apperance of cheeses according to the correla-
tion among these properties (Po0:01). The statistical
ranking for overall acceptability scores was
YL>SM=RF>DL=LF. Although the difference
was not signicant (P > 0:01), the low-fat cheese
containing SimplessesD-100 was more acceptable than
the low-fat cheese containing RaftilinesHP during
storage except the score on the 60th day of storage.
Dairy-Lot had no effect on the acceptability of low-fat
cheese. The mean scores of overall acceptability during
storage increased until the 30th day of storage and
decreased on the further days of storage.
The results of textural, melting and sensory properties
were correlated to nd the relations between these
properties. A signicant negative correlation was found
between meltability and instrumental hardness
(Po0:01). This result shows that the harder the cheese,
the poorer the meltability. The texture and overall
acceptability obtained by sensory evaluation were
negatively correlated with the TPA hardness (Po0:01),
springiness (Po0:01), gumminess (Po0:01) and chewi-
ness (Po0:01). This means that the low-fat cheeses
produced by using fat replacers, SimplessesD-100 and
RaftilinesHP, which were softer, less elastic, less
gummy and less chewy, had higher texture scores and
were preferred by the panelists. But the decrease in the
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
372 N. Koca, M. Metin / International Dairy Journal 14 (2004) 365373
panel scores after 60th day of storage should not be
forgotten. Although the correlation was not signicant,
there were negative correlations between textural and
overall acceptability, and TPA adhesiveness. Moreover,
a negative correlation was found between hardness and
adhesiveness. These correlations mean that cheese
became adhesive as the hardness decreased to some
extent. Therefore, neither hard cheeses nor soft cheeses
were preferred.
4. Conclusions
The low-fat cheese without fat replacer was signi-
cantly harder, more elastic, gummier and more chewy
and had also poorer meltability, lower appearance,
texture, avour and overall acceptability scores than the
full-fat cheese. All appearance defects were corrected by
using SimplessesD-100. The use of SimplessesD-100
and RaftilinesHP improved the textural and sensory
properties of low-fat fresh kashar cheese until the 30th
day of storage whereas defects were observed on the
60th and 90th days of storage. These results indicated
that SimplessesD-100 and RaftilinesHP can improve
texture and sensory properties of low-fat fresh kashar
cheese. However, the shelf life of the cheese with these
fat replacers has to be shorter than 60 days and also
further investigations are needed to prevent the defects
which were shown after the 60th day of storage.
Acknowledgements
The present study has been supported by Pinar Dairy
Company, Dora Company and The Research and
Application Center of Ege University.
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