Efeito da temperatura na viscosidade aparente de diferentes marcas de requeijão cremoso tradicional e light

Creamy “Requeijao” is one of the most consumed processed cheeses in Brazil. It is used on hot and cold dishes all over the country. Based on the effect of temperature over the apparent viscosity of dairy, this work offered an assessment on the rheological behavior of four commercial Creamy “Requeijao” brands on both traditional and light versions, under 3 different temperatures: 10, 25, and 50 °C. The nutrient composition of the samples was also investigated as to correlate the amount of a certain macronutrient and variations in viscosity. Results show that, in general, consistency indexes of traditional samples were higher than those of their light counterparts, except for sample B at 25 °C and samples A and C at 50 °C. The effect of temperature variations was also observed, and invariably an increase in temperature resulted in a decrease of the  index for all samples. The effect of the shear rate was accentuated at higher rates, wherein the shear resistance displayed by traditional samples is clearly higher than the resistance displayed by light samples. Under the evaluated conditions, a correlation between nutrient composition and apparent viscosity curves was not observed.