Desenvolvimento e caracterização de requeijão funcional

Abstract

Requeijão processed cheese is a product obtained from melting the curd, which can be obtained by acid or enzymatic coagulation of milk, optionally added with cream and/or butter and/or anhydrous milk fat or butter oil and may be added with condiments, spices and other food substances. Due to the wide range of possibilities for adding requeijão and increased consumer demand for dairy products that have health benefits beyond their basic nutritional functions, it is increasingly looking to replace undesirable components such as fat with others that bring benefits such as green banana biomass (source of resistant starch) and also the addition of functional substances such as probiotic crops. Therefore, in general, this study aimed to develop functional requeijão with probiotic addition and reduced fat content, as well as to study the influence of the addition of these ingredients / substances on the technological, physicochemical, microbiological, functional and sensory characteristics of requeijão. The elaborated requeijão included the addition of encapsulated Lactobacillus acidophilus as a probiotic source and green banana biomass as a partial fat substitute, totaling four treatments and one control. Analyzes were performed to evaluate probiotic viability, microbiological conditions, centesimal composition, water activity, resistant starch, color, texture profile, lipid profile and sensory acceptability. The formulations presented satisfactory probiotic count (8 to 10 log CFU.g-1) during the 45 days of storage and gastrointestinal simulation. The addition of green banana biomass and the reduction in fat resulted in changes in the centesimal composition of the requeijão, and their moisture and protein content decreased, and only one formulation can be considered as low fat. The yellowish white color of the formulations was altered according to the composition as well as the texture parameters, and the treatments with the highest percentage of green banana biomass presented the greatest alterations. Finally, the results indicate that green banana biomass and encapsulated Lactobacillus acidophilus may be a potential option as ingredients to be used in the formulation of requeijão cremoso by the dairy industry, as they showed satisfactory behavior as a partial fat substitute and viability probiotics, respectively, conferring a different nutritional and functional value to this product.