Background: Camel milk contains all the essential nutrients as cow’s milk, and has potential beneficial nutritive properties. The drying process has a little effect on the surface composition of milk powders. The use of camel milk powder in the manufacture of processed cheese could produce a product with special functional properties.
Methods: The effects of adding different concentrations of camel milk powder (CMP; ranging from 5 to 15%) as a new functional source to replace the cheese base in the manufacture of processed cheese sauces with highly acceptable quality and sensory properties were investigated.
Results: All treatments varied significantly (p ≤ 0.05) in their properties depending on the percentage of CMP added and the storage period (6 ±0.5°C for 30 days). The pH, meltability, oil separation, viscosity and sensory properties of cheese sauce were measured during the storage period. Also, the chemical composition of the freshly prepared cheese sauces was examined. The moisture and total solids content decreased and increased significantly (p ≤ 0.05), in line with an increase of CMP in the cheese base formula, while the fat separation decreased with an increase in the percentage of camel milk powder added to the blends. The oil separation and meltability values increased (p ≤ 0.05) in all treatments, even in the control, throughout the storage period. Among treatments, the cheese sauce containing 15% CMP (T3) was characterized by higher viscosity values during the examined time of shearing and presented higher upward shifting of the flow curve, as compared with the other treatments, either fresh or during storage. All cheese treatments were more accepted by the panelists and rated above average, particularly with an increase in the ratio of CMP added of 10%.
Conclusions: The addition of CMP improved (p ≤ 0.05) the quality attributes of cheese sauces and could be considered as a new different source to substitute cheeses used in base blends of processed cheese.
Keywords: camel milk powder; chemical composition; physicochemical properties; processed cheese sauces; sensory properties; viscosity.