Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
food hygiene and control department faculty of veterinary medicine Cairo university
2
Food Hygiene and Control Department, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Cairo University
3
Cairo University, Faculty of veterinary medicine
4
Department of Food Hygiene and Control, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt.
Abstract
The higher price of full fat dairy cheese is the major cause that encourages consumers to purchase analogue cheese that depends on vegetable oils. Consequently, this study was designed to assess the various cheese analogues sold in Egypt. Ninety-five cheese analogue samples (35 each of Mozzarella analogues and processed spread, as well as 25 processed Cheddar) were examined microbiologically and chemically with an evaluation of their fatty acids profile. The moisture and fat/ dry matter % of Mozzarella, processed cheese spread, and processed Cheddar were declared with the mean values of 49.53, 58.98, 51.88% and 62.53, 73.14, 60.16%, respectively. The total colony count mean was 6×107, 19×102, and 1×106 CFU/g in Mozzarella, processed spread and Cheddar cheese, respectively. The highest yeast count was noticed in Mozzarella and Cheddar in a percentage of 94.29 and 92.00, respectively, while the maximum unacceptable ratio of molds was counted in processed cheese spread (22.9%) based on Egyptian Standards (ES: 1132/2005). A high incidence of Staphylococcus and Coliform counts were detected in the examined Mozzarella cheese samples. The results of potassium sorbate revealed that two Mozzarellas, two Cheddar, and seven processed samples exceeded 1000 ppm in disagreement with the label. The saturated fatty acids % in examined products ranged from 46.52 to 57.32. No samples were acceptable for ratios of poly unsaturated fatty acids/saturated fatty acids (PUFA/SFA) and Omega-6 /Omega-3 (n6/n3) that were found uncompilable with the nutritional guideline for healthy food announced by WHO (2003). This is one of few studies in Egypt that is designed to evaluate the comparison between the selected analogue cheeses. Therefore, we recommend more studies on assessment of analogue cheeses as well as types of fat that are used in their processing should be identified in regulations and included on the label by law.
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