Co-Authors:
Rosenthal, I., Department of Food Science, Volcani Center, P.O. Box 6, Bet Dagan 50250, Israel
Rosen, B., Department of Food Science, Volcani Center, P.O. Box 6, Bet Dagan 50250, Israel
Bernstein, S., Department of Food Science, Volcani Center, P.O. Box 6, Bet Dagan 50250, Israel
Abstract:
Soft fresh cheeses, cottage and quarg, are gaining popularity due to the concern for freshness, healthy food and weight control. Unfortunately, these are perishable products with a shelf life of less than 3 weeks, the major factor of product spoilage being surface fungi. This study examined the effect of surface-infrared pasteurization of fresh cottage cheese packed in plastic containers on its microbiological and physicochemical condition during storage. The experimental results show that the surface-pasteurization (5 min, 71 °C) reduced the number of contaminating yeast and molds in a surface layer of ca. 1 cm deep by at least 1 order of magnitude, and may improves the shelf-life at a storage temperature of 4 °C, to approximately 3-4 weeks.