ANÁLISE SENSORIAL DE QUEIJO DE LEITE DE OVELHA SANTA INÊS

Abstract

Sheep's milk has gained space in the production of various cheeses, mainly due to its high nutritional value. The objective of this work was to carry out the sensory analysis of fresh and seasoned cheese made from Santa Inês sheep's milk. For the production of cheese, the sheep were milked and the milk processed in the Agroindustry sector, with slow pasteurization at 65 ºC for 30 minutes and cooled to 40 ºC. Then, 10 mL of rennet was added and the milk was kept at rest until coagulation. The curd was cut and drained, adding salt in the proportion of about 3% of the mass weight. The dough was separated into two equal parts, seasoning only one of the halves with 30 g of oregano. Subsequently, these two compositions were placed in molds, forming two types of cheese: seasoned cheese and fresh cheese. To evaluate the treatments, sensory analysis was applied with 80 untrained tasters, applying a 9-point Hedonic Scale for the parameters color, flavor, texture, aroma and general appearance. The acceptability index (AI) for the evaluated parameters was also determined. The results of the sensorial analysis showed that the seasoned fresh cheese presented better results in the aroma and flavor evaluations than the fresh cheese (P<0.05). Both treatments showed good acceptance, and the seasoned cheese obtained higher scores for all parameters analyzed. There was a sensory superiority and greater acceptability of seasoned cheese in relation to fresh cheese. Both seasoned fresh sheep's milk cheese and fresh cheese showed good acceptability, which allows their production and consumption.