An optimized process for Indian farmstead artisanal cheese: Value addition for increased farm income

摘要

Taking cues from the success of homemade traditional cheeses in the western countries, the current project was aimed at investigating whether cheese making principles can be adapted in the Indian rural environments and applied to make artisanal farmstead cheeses. Standard cheese making protocol was modified to suit Indian farmstead conditions using raw material, equipment and implements that are easily available on the farms. Standardised cow milk and locally available starters were used. The processmodification included varying the cooking temperature and brining time. Optimization was achieved by using Central Composite Rotatable Design (CCRD) of Response Surface Methodology (RSM) for evaluation of individual and interactive effects of differentfactors. On the basis of the sensory (flavour, body and texture) and physico-chemical (moisture, salt) responses, the levels of cooking temperatures and brining time selected were in the range of40-50°C and 8-12 hours, respectively. The optimised product contained 45.85% moisture, 54.16% total solids, 29.58% fat, 22.34% protein, 2.83% ash, 1.05% salt, 0.04% lactose and 54.44% fat in dry matter respectively. The sensory evaluation results indicated that cheese of acceptable quality could be made by theoptimised technique, which can be transferred to dairy farmers to make small scale artisanal cheeses at farm levels. The long term goal was to provide an impetus to the farmers for value addition, product diversification and enhanced farm income.