Abstract

Pizza cheese is a combination of mozzarella and cheddar cheese. Majority of food processors employ mozzarella cheese as pizza toping, but it has some feeble quality characteristics due to lack of biochemical reactions that take place during ripening. So, trend has been shifted to the addition of emulsifying salts in manufacturing processed pizza cheese. In this context, the current study was planned to provide novelty in processed pizza cheese that was manufactured from a blend of mozzarella cheese and different aged (2 and 6 months) cheddar cheeses in constant ratio mainly by selecting two different types of emulsifying salts i.e., Trisodium citrate (TSC) and Disodium phosphate (DSP) to investigate their impact on the functionality of processed pizza cheese. The total 12 processed pizza cheeses were manufactured in which six pizza cheeses were prepared with amalgamation of 2-months ripened cheddar cheese with mozzarella and other 6 pizza cheeses were made with mixture of 6-months ripened cheddar cheese with mozzarella. All these treatments of processed pizza cheeses were designated as ES0 (Commercial Pizza cheese), ES1 (1:1), ES2 (1.5:0.5), ES3 (0.5:1.5), ES4 (2:0), ES5 (0:2) and ES6 (2.5:0) containing various percentages of Trisodium citrate (TSC): Disodium phosphate (DSP) respectively. The texture profile analysis of Pizza cheeses differed significantly (p<0.05) due to emulsifying salts and different aged cheddar cheeses. The increasing ripening period decreased the values for textural parameters (hardness, gumminess, stickiness) of Pizza cheeses. It was observed that as the period of ripening of Cheddar cheeses increased in Processed Pizza cheeses, the meltability improved and stretchability reduced. Sensory evaluation based on cheese flavor, texture and appearance showed that pizza cheese having concentration of 2 months ripened cheddar cheese, and mixture of 1.5% Trisodium citrate and 0.5% Disodium phosphate got highest sensory score for flavor, texture, and overall acceptability.