Mozzarella cheese of buffalo's milk elaborated by traditional and direct acidification methods

The study was purpose to evaluate the processing of buffalo's milk Mozzarella cheese of elaborated by traditional method and by direct acidification method with citric acid. Acidification pH ranged from 5,1 to 5,2. There was a reduction from 8 to 3 hours in the total time of cheese production by utilization of direct acidification method in relation to the traditional method. This reduction occurred due to a decrease on coagulation time from 50 to 5 minutes and the absence of fermentation stage. Fermentation stage lasted 4 hours in the traditional method. The cheese elaborated by direct acidification method presented higher yield than those obtained with the traditional method, with values of 18,0 and 17,3%, respectively. Considering dry basis yield both processing methods did not differ. The cheese elaborated by the acidification method presented lower protein and higher humidity contents and, consequently, lower contents of total solids in relation to the traditional one. There were no significantly differences between the two types of cheeses on fat, ash and calcium levels. For the acceptance test, 50 non-trained tasters evaluated the samples using a 9 points hedonic scale. Results showed no significant difference (p<0,05) in the acceptance of the samples, with means of 6,68 and 6,26 for the direct acidification method and traditional method, respectively.

direct acidification; buffalo's milk; Mozzarella cheese