Storage related changes in Pizza cheese as affected using Saccharomyces boulardii adjunct culture

The investigation examined the storage related changes in Pizza cheeses for a period of 28 days at 4oC. The physicochemical properties i.e. moisture, titratable acidity (TA), pH, soluble nitrogen (SN), total volatile fatty acids (TVFA) were markedly affected by temperature (T), period (P) and their interaction T×P. The TA, SN and TVFA exhibited marked increases with the advancement of the storage period. The sensory scores differed markedly for cheeses amongst each other with regard to T and P, except for stringiness. The stringiness score was markedly affected by T, P and their interaction T×P. Microbial analysis revealed the absence of coliforms in fresh as well as stored cheeses. The S. boulardii and LAB counts were markedly affected by T, P and their interaction T×P. The S. boulardii and LAB counts of all the cheeses tended to show a gradual decrease during the storage period. Cheese CBHM was associated with a higher S. boulardii count and elicited the desired baking and sensory characteristics when judged as topping on pizza pie. Since storage beyond 14 days led to a reasonable decline in the count of S. boulardii, only 2 weeks of refrigerated storage is advocated to reap the health benefits accrued from the consumption of such cheese containing probiotic microbe.