Table 5.
Biochemical, nutritional, and textural characteristics of the ricotta cheeses.
| Ricotta cheeses | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RC | RC1 | RC5 | RCf1 | RCf5 | |
| Biochemical and nutritional characteristics | |||||
| pH | 5.02 ± 0.03 a | 5.02 ± 0.02 a | 5.02 ± 0.03 a | 4.95 ± 0.03 b | 4.88 ± 0.04 b |
| TTA (mL NaOH 0.1 M) | 8.1 ± 0.2 b | 8.1 ± 0.2 b | 8.2 ± 0.3 b | 8.5 ± 0.1 b | 8.9 ± 0.3 a |
| Moisture (%) | 76.6 ± 0.5 a | 76.5 ± 0.7 a | 73.1 ± 0.5 b | 76.2 ± 0.8 a | 73.0 ± 0.5 b |
| Proteins 1 (% w/v) | 9.8 ± 0.5 b | 10.3 ± 0.6 ab | 10.9 ± 0.7 a | 10.3 ± 0.4 ab | 11.0 ± 0.6 a |
| Fat (% w/v) | 10.2 ± 0.3 a | 10.3 ± 0.4 a | 10.7 ± 0.4 a | 10.3 ± 0.3 a | 10.7 ± 0.5 a |
| Carbohydrates (% w/v) | 3.5 ± 0.3 b | 3.9 ± 0.4 b | 6.3 ± 0.2 a | 3.7 ± 0.3 b | 5.8 ± 0.3 a |
| Ash (% w/v) | 2.4 ± 0.2 a | 2.5 ± 0.3 a | 2.6 ± 0.2 a | 2.5 ± 0.1 a | 2.6 ± 0.3 a |
| ACE-inhibitory activity | 7.2 ±0.2 c | 7.5 ± 0.3 c | 7.5 ± 0.2 c | 25.1 ± 0.2 b | 64.3 ± 0.2 a |
| Textural Profile Analysis | |||||
| Hardness (g) | 244.9 ± 11.0 b | 244.1 ± 23.5 b | 357.3 ± 32.0 a | 242.5 ± 14.5 b | 253.2 ± 19.3 b |
| Cohesiveness | 0.519 ± 0.015 b | 0.468 ± 0.016 c | 0.566 ± 0.034 a | 0.584 ± 0.027 a | 0.601 ± 0.028 a |
| Springiness | 0.716 ± 0.016 a | 0.694 ± 0.011 b | 0.608 ± 0.036 c | 0.709 ± 0.010 ab | 0.627 ± 0.021 c |
| Chewiness (g) | 91.0 ± 3.5 a | 79.9 ± 5.2 bc | 100.4 ± 6.9 a | 63.6 ± 10.4 c | 85.0 ± 11.8 ab |
1 Protein concentration is calculated as total nitrogen × 6.38. The data are the means of three independent experiments ± standard deviations (n = 3). a–c Values in the same row, with different superscript letters, differ significantly (p < 0.05). RC, control ricotta cheese (without fortification); RC1 and RC5, ricotta cheeses fortified with 1 and 5% (w/w) spray-dried unfermented R-UF, respectively; RCf1 and RCf5, ricotta cheeses fortified with 1 and 5% (w/w) fR-UF, respectively.