Eureka! Institutional Repository

This postgraduate study deals with the development and study of cream cheese, that is produced by traditional yogurt and cow butter, whey protein 85%, xanthan and salt. The traditional yogurts that were used for this purpose were sheep yogurt, cow yogurt and goat yogurt. The cow butter was added in 2 levels, either at 10% or 20% and the whey protein in 3 levels, 0%, 5% and 10%. The addition of both salt and xanthan remained at the same level in every sample, at 1% and 0,8%. Furthermore, it was under investigation the affection of each of the ingredients and the level in which they added to the products in the rheological, physicochemical and organoleptic properties of the final products. At the preliminary stage of the study, many different experiments were made in order to determine the lowest and upper limits of the ingredients. By this way, the limits were determined and the production of the samples was able to be done. At the preliminary study, sodium caseinate was used instead of whey protein, unfortunately, it gave a bad taste at the final products, so it was rejected as ingredient. After the final selection of the addition levels of each ingredient, the experiment plan was organized, and it includes 18 samples of cream cheese that were produced by different kinds of yogurt, butter and whey protein addition. All the samples, that were produced, had creamy and homogeneous texture in the shade from white to pale yellow with acceptable spreading ability and light aroma. The samples were produced and then an organoleptic examination was carried out with the participation of 57 assayers. The physicochemical measurements included the measurement of color, of pH and the size of the fat globules. The colorimetric method was made by using the colorimeter HunterLab, the samples without the addition of the whey protein were brighter white and the ones that were produced with more quantity of the whey protein and butter had pale yellow color. Considering the pH measurements, there was a slight difference due to the kind of the yogurts and the products without whey protein addition had the lowest values. Additionally, the measurement of the fat globules was held by using the appliance Mastersizer 2000, the results showed that the fat globules formed agglomerates.The study of the rheological properties was held by the method of TPA and squeeze flow by using the TA- XT plus analyzer. The organoleptic evaluation showed that the majority of the assayers seems to like most the samples that had the highest quantity of the butter and the percentage of the whey protein at 5%. Also, the 96,5% of the essayers confirmed that they would buy the product that they liked the most, if it was available at the market. In conclusion we found out that we can develop cream cheese by using traditional yogurt, in 7 that way these products are added value products, that can reclaim yogurts which don’t have more self-life. Those products had desired physicochemical and rheological properties and were acceptable at the organoleptic evaluation. After some conversions, these products can be released in the market and it seems that they are accepted by the consumers.