Functional White Cheeses with Dried Fruit Addition: Changes in Physicochemical Properties, Ripening Parameters and Casein Fractions

OpenAlex · Turkish

In this study, five types of white-brined cheese were produced to investigate the effects of incorporating different dried fruits on their physicochemical, biochemical, and bioactive properties. Four experimental cheeses were made by adding 2% (w/w) of dried black mulberry, blackberry, black grape, or raspberry to the curd, while one cheese without fruit served as a control. The cheeses were vacuum-packaged and ripened at 7 ± 1 °C for 90 days. Samples were collected on days 3, 30, 60, and 90 of ripening for a series of analyses. These included physicochemical parameters (dry matter, ash, fat, pH, titratable acidity, salt), total protein, ripening indices (water-soluble nitrogen (WSN), non-protein nitrogen (NPN), WSN/TN, NPN/TN), antioxidant activity, total phenolic content, and protein degradation assessed by electrophoretic separation of casein fractions. Cheeses containing different dried fruits showed significant differences in dry matter, pH, salt content, titratable acidity, WSN, NPN, and ripening index values (P0.05). The dried-fruit-enriched cheeses had much higher antioxidant activity than the control cheese. Likewise, the addition of dried fruits led to a marked increase in total phenolic content in all samples, with the fruit-added cheeses showed higher phenolic content values than that of the control. Electrophoretic analysis results indicated that β-casein and αs1-casein levels decreased in all cheeses during ripening. This reduction in β-casein and αs1-casein was more pronounced in the fruit-fortified cheeses compared to the control. In conclusion, the results demonstrate that dried black mulberry, blackberry, black grape, and raspberry can be effectively used in white cheese production to obtain functional cheeses with enhanced antioxidant and phenolic properties.