Effects of Fat Reduction on the Stability, Microstructure, Rheological and Color Characteristics of White-Brined Cheese Emulsion with Different Emulsifying Salt Amounts

Cheese emulsion is an intermediate product for the production of cheese powder and needs to be stable, homogeneous and pumpable characteristics to convey to the spray drier. This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of fat reduction and emulsifying salt (ES) amount in cheese emulsion systems on the physicochemical characteristics. Reduced-fat (RF) and full-fat (FF) white-brined cheese emulsions were produced with different dry matters (DM; 15%–25% excluding ES) and ES concentrations (0%–3% based on cheese weight). Stable cheese emulsion was obtained at lower DM in RF cheese emulsion than that of FF cheese emulsion. Reduction in the amount of ES resulted in instability of both emulsions. Apparent viscosity with pseudoplastic flow behavior significantly increased with the decrease of fat content in stable cheese emulsions. Microstructure of emulsions appeared to be related to the fat content, stability and degree of emulsification. Reduction of fat content caused to get less lightness and more greenness in color, whereas yellowness was significantly decreased by increase in the amount of ES. In conclusion, fat reduction resulted in higher viscosities of cheese emulsion due to inducing the increment of protein, and the addition amount of ES considered as very important factor to produce stable cheese emulsion without protein precipitation or cream separation. Therefore, for preparation of RF cheese emulsion using a variety of white-brined cheese, lower amounts of DM would be suggested in this study to obtain homogenous droplets in the atomizing process of spray drying.