Textural changes and proteolysis of low moisture Mozzarella cheese frozen under various conditions.

BERTOLA N; CALIFANO A; BEVILACQUA A.; ZARITZKY NOEMI

LEBENSMITTEL-WISSENSCHAFT UND-TECHNOLOGIE-FOOD SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 1996 vol. 29 p. 470 - 474

0023-6438

Hardness, adhesiveness, cohesiveness, springiness and nonprotein nitrogen (NPN) content were used to assess the effects of aging time (6 to 21 d at 4 °C), ripening before or after freezing, freezing rate and frozen storage (3 months at -20 °C) on characteristics of low-moisture Mozzarella cheese. The results obtained were compared with unfrozen control samples, aged at 4 °C for between 6 and 42 d. Freezing cheeses that had been ripened for about 14 d produced a product similar to refrigerated cheese at the same stage of aging. When cheese samples were frozen after 6 d of ripening, they were harder and the NPN content was greater than in refrigerated controls, even after aging the thawed samples for 8 more d.