Table 2.

Effect of rate of addition of starter culture on textural characteristics of buffalo milk Feta type cheese during ripening

Textural characteristics	Starter culture (%)	Ripening Days (R.D)					Overall mean
		0	15	30	45	60
Hardness (N)	1.0	32.8 ± 0.31	29.5 ± 0.11	26.1 ± 0.12	29.3 ± 0.21	32.6 ± 0.14	30.1
	1.5	31.1 ± 0.29	26.6 ± 0.17	24.7 ± 0.11	27.9 ± 0.14	31.6 ± 0.17	28.4
	2.0	28.8 ± 0.43	23.9 ± 0.27	20.9 ± 0.22	27.9 ± 0.19	26.0 ± 0.13	25.5
	Overall mean	30.9	26.6	23.9	28.3	30.1
	C.D. 0.01	LSC = 0.154		R.D = 0.199		LSC × R.D =0.345
Cohesiveness	1.0	0.33 ± 0.04	0.29 ± 0.02	0.24 ± 0.01	0.21 ± 0.05	0.18 ± 0.01	0.25
	1.5	0.33 ± 0.01	0.28 ± 0.01	0.22 ± 0.06	0.19 ± 0.03	0.16 ± 0.03	0.24
	2.0	0.30 ± 0.07	0.23 ± 0.05	0.21 ± 0.02	0.19 ± 0.01	0.16 ± 0.02	0.22
	Overall mean	0.32	0.27	0.23	0.20	0.17
	C.D. 0.01	LSC = 0.0027		R.D = 0.0035		LSC × R.D = 0.0061
Springiness (mm)	1.0	0.78 ± 0.01	0.75 ± 0.01	0.56 ± 0.02	0.48 ± 0.01	0.41 ± 0.01	0.60
	1.5	0.75 ± 0.04	0.71 ± 0.02	0.53 ± 0.01	0.46 ± 0.02	0.39 ± 0.03	0.57
	2.0	0.75 ± 0.08	0.65 ± 0.03	0.50 ± 0.01	0.43 ± 0.02	0.36 ± 0.02	0.54
	Overall mean	0.76	0.70	0.53	0.46	0.39
	C.D. 0.01	LSC = 0.0028		R.D = 0.0036		LSC × R.D = 0.0062
Chewiness (N.mm)	1.0	8.6 ± 0.12	6.5 ± 0.11	3.5 ± 0.06	3.0 ± 0.09	2.5 ± 0.13	4.8
	1.5	7.8 ± 0.11	5.3 ± 0.16	3.0 ± 0.10	2.5 ± 0.12	2.0 ± 0.09	4.1
	2.0	6.5 ± 0.14	3.7 ± 0.12	2.3 ± 0.09	2.3 ± 0.14	1.5 ± 0.11	3.1
	Overall mean	7.6	5.2	2.9	2.6	2.0
	C.D. 0.01	LSC = 0.0027		R.D = 0.0035		LSC R.D = 0.0062

Each value of mean ± SD of five replicates (n = 5), LSC Level of addition of starter culture, C.D. Critical difference