DESARROLLO Y TRANSFERENCIA DE TECNOLOGÍA PARA LA ELABORACIÓN REGIONAL DE QUESOS DE OVEJA

MERCANTI, DIEGO J.;; BERGAMINI, CARINA V; MEDINA, ROXANA; SABBAG, NORA; ZALAZAR, CARLOS A.

Porto Alegre, Brasil

Congreso; 9º CONGRESO PANAMERICANO DE LA LECHE; 2006

Argentina is not a big sheep’s milk cheese producer, and there are no clearly defined manufacture protocols, which are necessary to obtain a regular and high quality product. This work has been developed in order to produce cheeses that could be sold all along the year from a 6-month seasonal milk production. For such a purpose, 4 cheese-making manufactures following two different protocols were made. In the first procedure a starter constituted only of streptococci was used (S,) while in the second one the starter comprised both streptococci and lactobacilli (L). Microbiological populations were satisfactory, with high starter counts and very low coliforms, yeasts and moulds levels. pH was 0.4 units lower in L cheeses, which had stronger taste and flavour. As indicated by an opinion poll, both types of cheeses had excellent acceptabilities. Moreover, 50 per cent of the people preferred sheep’s milk cheeses to a product with similar characteristics made with cow’s milk. Because of the good results obtained in this work, it has been considered a transfer of technology to a rural school of a near locality for the installation of a cheese manufacture plant within it, and the subsequent commercialization of the product.