TECHNOLOGICAL STUDIES ON SMOKED CHEESE

Abstract

Smoking of food and food products is. a common and old· process, and one of the best ways to keep food from spoiling where wood smoke contains substances that inhibit the growth of spoilage organisms and thus improves the keeping quality of the product, and also imparts an agreeable tast and appearance to foods. This work was carried out to study the possibility of production of smoke solutions from different wood sources. The liquid smoke was then subjected to a clarifying processes, whereby the deleterious substances were removed to considerable extent and the agreeable components which impart smoke tast and flavor were retained. This clarified liquid was then applied to cheese. The investigation was carried out in three parts:- Part I: Survey study on market smoked cheese. In this part, the chemical composition and microbiological quality of surveying smoked cheese in local market was studied. The results can be summarized as follows: • The chemical analysis of cheese samples included, moisture, fat, salt, pH, acidity, T.N., SN., NP.N., carbonyl, phenol, benzo(a)pyrene, tyrosine, tryptophan and T.V.F.A. were studied. These components were nearly within the common values of cheese. The ripening indices showed a wide variation among the different cheese types, also the cheese samples were characterized by the higher values of benzo(a)pyrene content. • The microbiological analysis of the tested cheese showed higher total count, and slightly lower counts of protoolytic and lipolytic organisms. Colifonn group were not detected in cheese samples except in Fann cheese which counted 30 c.f.u./g.