SENSORY CHANGES DURING MATURATION OF FAT-REDUCED CHEDDAR CHEESE - EFFECT OF ADDITION OF ENZYMATICALLY ACTIVE ATTENUATED STARTER CULTURES

A modest reduction of fat content from 21 to 15.5% resulted in significant differences in the flavour and texture of Cheddar cheese. The main sources of variability were in terms of the intensity of Cheddar flavour and mouth-coating character - characteristics of commercial full-fat cheese which have been related to perception of maturity, In addition, the cheese with the lower fat content tended to develop flavour imbalance related to sulphur and bitter notes after maturation for over 20 weeks. Such imbalance was not observed for cheese with 21 % fat matured for up to 26 weeks under identical conditions. Furthermore, differences in the pasty and crumbly nature of the texture were also noted between cheese of 1 5.5 and 21 % fat content, Enhancement of the level of degradative enzymes in reduced-fat (i.e 15.5 %) cheese, by addition to curd of an attenuated starter culture rich in peptidase and protease, resulted in significant improvements in both intensity of Cheddar flavour and in mouth-coating character. The improvements were equivalent to enhanced maturation by 4-6 weeks. In cheese with 21 % fat, enhancement of enzyme activity under the protocol used in this work conferred no significant benefit. However, the cheeses containing 21 % fat were not defective in sensory properties and compared well with their commercial, full-fat analogues.