Studies on physico-chemical and microbiological analysis for preparation of paneer by using buffalo milk and mint

Paneer is a kind of soft variety of cheese obtained from heat-acid coagulation of milk. Buffalo milk is better suited for making paneer as compared to cow milk because it produces soft, weak and fragile product and that is considered unsuitable for cooking purposes. In the present study is an attempt to formulate higher nutritional value of paneer with added health benefit by addition of buffalo milk and mint. The buffalo milk has many advantages regarding nutritional qualities and chemical composition as characterized by higher fat, total solids, proteins, caseins, lactose and ash contents than that of cow milk and mint has been used as a medicine. In the present investigation treatment T0, T1, T2, T3 and T4 were formulated in which mint paneer was prepared by using buffalo milk: mint was in the ratio of (100:00, 98:2, 96:4, 94:6 and 92:8) respectively. It was found that among all treatments T2 scored higher in sensory evaluation and was considered as optimized product of mint paneer. The statistically analyzed the mean value of physico-chemical analysis of fat, protein, carbohydrate, ash, Total Solid (TS) and acidity percent of T2 treatment was found to be 21.78, 16.42, 19.51, 2.57, 60.28 and 0.26 respectively.