Development of Fruit Based Flavored White Cheese

Cheese is important food constituents among the processing dairy product. Nowadays flavored white cheese is alternatively provided as food product in order to increase consumer acceptance throughout the world. However, flavored cheeses not familiar to consume in Ethiopia. Hence the aim of this study was to develop and evaluate the nutritional and sensory appeal of fruit flavored white cheese. A total of 20 liters of fresh milk were brought from Holeta dairy research livestock farm so as to process the cheese. The fruits (Lemon & Orange) were purchased from Holeta fruit juice shops. The experiment was conducted in five treatments such as 3% fruit flavored cheese, 6% fruit flavored cheese, 9% fruit flavored cheese, 12% fruit flavored cheese and the control (cheese without fruit flavored) using mixture expert design software. Physicochemical of pH, titratable acidity, moisture content, ash content, crude protein, crude fat, mineral and sensory evaluation were done following standard procedures. All the samples were analyzed in duplicate. The sensory attributes were done using five hedonic scale by 15 semi-trained panelists. In this study the result showed that the highest mean score of pH value (6.04) for 12% fruit flavored cheese, Moisture content (3.76%) for 6% flavored cheese and Crude Fat (17.85%) for 3% flavored cheese respectively. Although the highest mean value of Ash (11.55%) and Crude Protein (53.72%) shown in the control. A significant difference (P<0.05) was shown by only Mg among Ca, Fe, Zn and K. Moreover, Color, flavor, odor, texture and overall acceptance shown no significant difference (P>0.05) from Sensory attributes. In conclusion, using fruit flavored cheese may enhance the nutritional quality and sensory acceptance of the cheese. This research study will provide good information for those working on fruit juice shops as well as juice industries to use as alternative product.