Background. Mozzarella is one of several pasta filata or stretched curd cheeses that originated in Italy. The name pasta filata refers to a unique plasticizing and texturing treatments of the fresh curd in hot water that imparts to the finished cheese its characteristic fibrous structure and melting properties. Mozzarella cheese made from standardized buffalo milk with 3 and 1.5% fat. The effect of coagulant types (calf rennet, chymosin and Mucor miehei rennet) on the cheese properties was carried out.
Material and methods. Fresh raw buffalo milk and starter cultures of Streptococcus salvarius ssp. thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus were used. The coagulants were calf rennet powder (HA-LA), microbial rennet powder (formase ISOTL from Mucor miehei) and chymosin derived by fermentation (CDF). Milk, curd, whey,kneading water and cheese were analysed. The slab gel electrophoresis patterns of Mozzarella cheese were also applied. Statistical analyses were also applied on the obtained data.
Results. Recovery of DM of both curd and cheese decreased in case of using Mucor miehei rennet while the recovery of TP and fat content in both curd and cheese and their loss to whey and kneading water were nearly the same. Soluble nitrogen and soluble tyrosine and tryptophan contents elevated with increasing the storage period. Increasing rate of the soluble nitrogen in case of using Mucor miehei rennet was higher compared to that made with the other types of coagulant. TVFA content increased with advancing the storage period, also increased with increasing the fat content of the original milk fat used. No effect can be seen due to the coagulant types. The meltability increased with storage period progress. While the effect of the type of coagulant enzyme hade neglect effect on meltability fat leakage and oiling off. Mozzarella cheese made with Mucor miehei rennet obtained the highest firmness compared with those made using calf rennet, or chymosin. Both scores of the flavour and body and texture improved with progressing of storage period, and were higher in case of using Mucor miehei rennet, while the appearance score of the cheeses decreased with increasing the storage period at 4°C.
Conclusion. Using Mucor miehei rennet increased the rate of proteolysis during storage period more than the other 2 types of coagulant. They also, showed the higher sensory evaluation.