Innovative vegetables-processed cheese: II. high nutritional and functional attributes

Background: Foods not only aim to satisfy hunger and provide for essential nutritional needs, but they also improve the consumers' general health and prevent diseases related to nutrition. Nowadays, functional foods have seen rapid growth in the market driven by technological innovation and new product development. Our recent study produced a novel processed cheese using vegetables mixture that had a highly physicochemical composition and rheological and sensory characteristics.Methods: This study was conducted to improve the nutritional and functional qualities of processed cheese using several vegetables (flavored-processed cheese, FPC) (mushrooms, dill, leeks, parsley, celery, green peas, green beans, squash, potatoes, and carrots) with ratios of 2.5, 5, 7.5, and 10%.Results: Our data on nutritional values for FPC samples contain extra micro and macro-nutrient components, such as vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, amino acids, and unsaturated fatty acids, compared to the control cheese. Adding the vegetable mixture was accepted by the consumers and can contribute to the production and development of a new and safe type of processed cheese that has an excellent nutritional value, functional properties, and overall acceptability. Ratios of 5% and 7.5% were observed as the best samples.Conclusion: We recommend that vegetables should be used as a natural food additive for technological purposes. These are necessary sources of human health-promotion by nutritional and functional food properties of various dairy products.Keywords: Processed cheese, vegetables, nutritional values, amino acids, fatty acids, minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants