Technological optimisation of Picante cheese using microbiological, chemical and physical criteria

In order to optimise the final quality of Picante cheese, several processing parameters (i.e., volumetric fraction of caprine milk, ripening time and percentage of salt added to fresh cheese) were manipulated and gave rise to a number of experimental cheeses produced according to a second-order, composite factorial design. Microbiological, physicochemical, biochemical and textural analyses were carried out in samples from all experimental cheeses. The most important effect in microbiological terms was produced by ripening time, in both linear and quadratic forms; caprine milk fraction and amount of salt added were also found to be significant factors, again in both linear and quadratic forms, especially with respect to total viable mesophilic microorganisms, Enterobacteriaceae and staphylococci. In terms of proteolysis and lipolysis, ripening time was the dominant factor, but caprine milk fraction and NaCl content were also significant at the 5% level. A higher content of caprine milk was associated with higher extents of proteolysis and lipolysis, but the reverse held for NaCl content. It was concluded that 50–80% (v/v) caprine milk, ripening for 195 days and 15% (w/wTS) NaCl provide safe counts of Enterobacteriaceae and staphylococci, while maximising proteolysis and lipolysis in Picante cheese