Improving Textural and Sensory Characteristics of Low-Fat UF Feta Cheese Made with Fat Replacers

Saturated fat consumption increases the risk of both coronary and cancer diseases. Therefore, fat reduction in UF-Feta cheese (
45% FDM) is favorable but, unfortunately, it has some negative effects on the texture and sensory characteristics of the cheese. In this research, response surface methodology was employed to study the probably improving effects of WPC80 (0-20 gr kg-1), lecithin (0-2 gr kg-1) and a mixture of xanthan and guar (0-1 gr kg-1) on sensory and instrumental texture characteristics of low-fat UF-Feta cheese made from 6% fat retentate. Lecithin and xanthan-guar had positive and WPC80 had negative effects on hardness, chewiness, and gumminess of the cheeses. Furthermore, results showed lecithin had negative effects on taste, acceptance, and appearance and positive effects on sensory texture. The taste was improved by WPC and xanthan-guar enhanced sensory texture and acceptance scores. Finally, multiple response optimization method was used to determine optimized formula of low-fat cheese (19.47 gr kg-1 WP 80, 0.5 gr kg-1 xanthan-guar and 0.13 gr kg-1 lecithin). A cheese sample produced based on optimized formula and full fat cheese had similar sensory and instrumental texture.