The effect of vegetable fat on cheese yield and cheese properties

Abstract: The production of cheese is in continuous development with objectives to in-crease productivity, achieve changes in shelf life and functional properties of the products. One concept in the development is to substitute milk fat with vegetable fats and oils in the manufacture of cheese. The objective of this study was to investigate effects on cheese yield and cheese quality of 4 different semi-hard analogue cheese products produced by substituting milk fat with vegetable fat, each analogue cheese with a specific mixture of vegeta-ble fat. As reference a cheese produced with anhydrous milk fat was used. The yield and recovery of fat and protein were determined by recording the weights of each cheese direct after press and after 20±2 days of storage and analysis of the composition of the cheeses after 20±2 days of storage. The cheese was fur-ther subjected for texture profile analysis in a TA-XT Plus Texture Analyser and analysed with Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) to examine whether the fat behaves similar in the cheese as in pure form in respect to its thermal properties. The cheese yield was not significantly different when using different fats. Differ-ent amounts of water were absorbed during the water cooling. The fat C cheese absorbed significantly less water than the other cheeses. The cheese made of fat C was significantly harder than the other cheeses. The springiness as well as the cohe-siveness of the different types of cheeses was similar even though significant differ-ences occurred. DSC showed that the fat behaved similarly in the cheese and in pure form in all types of cheeses in respect to melting and crystallization pattern of the fat. Guiding water contents for all types of cheeses, and representative fat con-tents for cheeses made of fat A and C could be determined from the DSC spec-trums. In conclusion, regarding fat and protein content of the cheese it is possible to produce similar kinds of cheeses, using different kinds of fats. Using different kinds of vegetable fats or milk fat does not result in significant differences in yield by using the same manufacturing process.