CHARACTERISTICS OF MOZZARELLA CHEESE FROM WATER BUFFALO MILK IN NORTH SUMATRA

In Indonesia, Mozzarella cheese is a fresh stretched cheese produced from whole cow’s milk. The objective of this research was to study characteristics of Mozzarella cheese from water buffalo milk in North Sumatra. Buffalo milk were collected from lactating buffaloes from three farms located at Patumbak, Lubuk Pakam and Siborong-borong. The traits measured included milk quality, cheese quality, cheese texture, microstructure of cheese using Scanning electron Microscopy (SEM) and organoleptic of cheese. The Completely randomized design was applied. The result revealed significant different content of included protein, fat and ash of Mozzarella cheese. The best cheese comes from Lubuk pakam and Siborong-borong which each have a higher fat content (10.13 ± 2.36% and 8.92 ± 5.21%) and softer texture (430.2 ± gf.s 54.67 and 504.9 ± 131.5 gf.s). Organoleptic test showed that Mozzarella cheese made in buffalo milk acceptance rate up to 79.4% from panel. Each farms produced different qualities of milk and had different quality of Mozzarella cheese. However, handling of milk and cheese prosessing also affected the quality of Mozzarella cheese.