Impiego di sieroproteine termodenaturate nella produzione del formaggio “Caprino Pugliese” stagionato

A study on “Apulian Caprino” hard goat cheese was carried out. The purpose of the work was the characterization of this product and the improvement of its quality by introducing some modifications in the manufacturing process. Two lots of cheese were produced from the same batch of milk; one was manufactured by using the traditional technology while the other was made by a modified process involving a slight fortification of the raw matter with heat-denatured whey proteins. The results obtained allowed to get a first characterization of the traditional product and confirmed its tendency to “calcinate”. This phenomenon was due to an excessive loss of humidity during ripening and of fat during curdling and cheese processing. The addition of low amounts of heat-denatured whey proteins to milk improved cheese structure but brought some changes in the chemical characteristics and in the proteolytic pattern. Such modifications had a negligible impact on cheese taste.