Effect of Activating Lacto Peroxidase System (LPS) On Quality and Storage Stability of Soft Cheese

Utilization of intrinsic enzymatic activity to increase the quality and storage stability of food product is a novel biological and biochemical technique. The aim of present research was to minimize the microbial, physiochemical and protein degradation changes in soft cheese to enhance its quality and shelf life by activating lacto peroxidase system in raw buffalo milk and ultimately using it for cheese production and studying its quality and storage stability. For this purpose buffalo milk samples were collected from Diary Research Farm at University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan. In collected milk samples LPS was activated by equimolar concentration at 20 ppm of NaSCN and H2O2 and resulting samples were used for soft cheese production. Analysis at 0, 7, 14 and 21 days of storage period were conducted under 4oC. Collected data were analyzed by using one way analysis of variance under completely randomized design (CRD). Means were compared by using LSD test at probability level of p<0.05. Results showed minimum contamination in microbial count, especially bacteria of salt tolerant, at the end of 21 days storage period. Significantly lowered yeasts, molds, Coliform and bacterial count (p<0.05) were observed in LPS activated cheese samples as compared to other. Moreover, proteolysis results determined by Urea-PAGE gel electrophoresis for casein fractions extracted from the three samples showed lower value for LPS treated cheese sample in contrast to others samples. Hence, the present study supports the Lacto peroxidase system (LPS) as a quality-cum-economical preservative technique as compared to other techniques in practice.