Effects of animal versus vegetal rennet on milk coagulation traits in Mediterranean buffalo bulk milk

摘要

Given consumer interest in Mozzarella di latte di Bufalaand other cheeses, and the growing interest of thecheese industry in offering products adequate for lactovegetarianconsumers, this study aimed to compareclotting capacity of vegetal and animal rennet in buffalomilk. Milk coagulation properties of 1,261 buffalobulk milk samples collected during milk quality testingwere assessed by lactodynamography using commercialanimal (75% chymosin and 25% bovine pepsin) andvegetal (Cynara cardunculus) rennets. Chemical compositionof milk samples was predicted by MilkoScan(Foss Analytics, Hillerød, Denmark) calibrated withspecific buffalo standards. Rennet effect (animal versusvegetal) was statistically analyzed with a paired t-test.Fat, protein, and lactose contents of milk samples were7.94%, 4.52%, and 4.80%, respectively. A similar variabilityof milk coagulation properties was observed withboth rennets, with the exception of greater variabilityof curd firmness at 30 min after the addition of vegetalrennet compared with animal rennet (73 and 26%, respectively).On average, when using plant rennet, milkstarted to coagulate and reached the 20-mm coagulum12 ± 0.22 min and 1.9 ± 0.20 min, respectively, laterthan with animal rennet. Thirty minutes after rennetaddition, curds were almost twice as firm in animal asin vegetal rennet (difference of 23.92 ± 0.66 mm). However,curd firmness at 60 min was only 1.21 ± 0.39 mmthicker with vegetal than with animal rennet. Moreover,when using animal rennet, 99.52% of samples startedcoagulating within the first 30 min of analysis, whereasonly 70.42% did so when using vegetal rennet. We concludethat vegetal rennet has the capacity to coagulatebuffalo milk, achieving a similar curd firmness to thatof animal rennet at 60 min. Further studies are neededto evaluate the sensory characteristics and consumeracceptability of Mozzarella di latte di Bufala processedwith vegetal rennet.