In this study, the impact of adding different amounts of sodium bisulfate on the color change of sterilized processed cheese as indicated by L*, a* and b* values as well as ΔE (color difference) was investigated with the aim of solving the browning problem of processed cheese during sterilization. It was found that addition of 0.2–0.8 g/kg of sodium bisulfate showed good inhibition against the browning of sterilized processed cheese.

This study used a quadratic rotation-orthogonal composite experimental design with four independent variables at five levels each to establish optimal process conditions for industrial production of Mozzarella cheese. The process conditions investigated in this study included fermentation time, clotting time, whey pH and the amount of added NaCl. A regression model to optimize these process conditions was proposed and validated for its statistical significance. The optimal process conditions that provided the maximum yield of Mozzarella cheese (24.78%) were determined as follows: fermentation time 27.5 min, clotting time 37.5 min, whey pH 6.3, and addition of 2.07% NaCl. The resulting cheese had a nice flavor, a close, smooth and flexible texture and a homogeneous color and its fiber-drawing capacity, meltability and foaming properties were good. All these parameters were comparable to those of laboratory-made cheese and met the quality requirements for use in pizza. The optimized process parameters are suitable for large-batch production of Mozzarella cheese in industrial practice.

This study investigated the effect of addition of protein isolates from three different plants (pea, mung and soybean) on cheese properties to find the most suitable plant protein for application in cheese. Milk coagulation properties (coagulation time, curd strength and whey OD value) and textural properties (elasticity, cohesiveness and chewiness) were comparatively tested on the three cheese samples. Moreover, sensory evaluation was carried out fuzzy judgment as well. Results showed that pea protein isolate provided better quality of cheese than the other two protein isolates.