Chemical, Textural and Ripening Characteristics of Semi-hard White Cheese Prepared from Camel Milk Using Camel Chymosin and Different Starter Cultures

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of camel chymosin and different types of starter cultures on the chemical, textural, proteolytic and lipolytic characteristics of semi-hard white cheese prepared from camel milk during ripening. Two treatments of chesses consisting of thermophilic starter culture camel cheese (CC-TC) containing Streptococcus salivarius subsp. thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus and the mixture of thermophilic/mesophilic yogurt starter culture camel cheese (CC-YC) containing S. salivarius subsp. thermophilus, Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus, Lacticaseibacillus casei subsp. casei and Levilactobacillus brevis were manufactured. Results show that camel cheese which was produced with YC as a starter culture had more yield in comparison with TC. The chemical changes were significantly higher in CC-YC (P < 0.05). The hydrolysis of α_s1-casein, β-casein and formation of their degradation products was relatively high in CC-YC. The total FFAs were significantly (P < 0.05) changed during 60 days of ripening and between CC-TC and CC-YC. The main substrate of lipolytic enzymes from both CC-TC and CC-YC was short-chain fatty acids containing butyric, caproic, capric, lauric, myristic, myristoleic, palmitic in camel cheeses which was decreased during ripening. Whereas CC-TC showed maximum hardness, adhesiveness, stringiness. However, CC-YC showed maximum resilience, cohesiveness, springiness, gumminess and chewiness. Therefore, the use of thermophilic/mesophilic yogurt culture is recommended for the production of good quality semi-hard white camel cheese, considering the chemical and textural characteristics of the cheese.