The use of freeze-shocked lactic starters in low-fat white pickled cheese

Freeze-shocked Lactobacillus helveticus and L. bulgaricus were examined to accelerate the ripening and improve the body, texture and flavour characteristics of low-fat white pickled cheese. The physical, chemical and sensory properties of the experimental cheeses with 20% fat-in-dry matter were comparatively evaluated with that of the low-fat and full-fat controls on days 1, 30, 60 and 90 at 7′1 °C. No adverse effect was found on gross composition of the cheese samples treated with freeze-shocked bacteria. With regard to proteolysis, better results were obtained from freeze-shocked L. helveticus. Organoleptic evaluation showed that all the experimental cheeses had almost the same scores for body and texture, but the cheeses treated with freeze-shocked L. helveticus or L. bulgaricus received lower flavour scores than the full-fat control cheese.