Effect of Persian and almond gums as fat replacers on the physicochemical, rheological, and microstructural attributes of low-fat Iranian White cheese

The effect of Persian and almond gums (0, 0.1 and 0.2% (w/w)) as fat replacers and milk fat (0.4, 0.9, and 1.4% (w/w)) on physicochemical and rheological characteristics and microstructure of low-fat Iranian White cheese was studied. Persian and almond gums both effectively increased moisture-to-protein (M: P) ratio of low-fat cheese samples which in turn led to a significant reduction in the hardness parameters fracture stress and Young's and storage (G') moduli (p <.05); however, the effect of Persian gum was more pronounced (p <.01). Gum addition promoted cheese yield and proteolysis rate (p <.05). Response surface optimization described that supplementation of cheese milk containing 0.9% fat with 0.2% Persian gum and 0.12% almond gum would result in a low-fat cheese with textural properties similar to its full-fat counterpart. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that the fat replacers produced full-fat-like structure in the low-fat Iranian White cheese, when incorporated at the optimum levels.