Dairy Industry Association of Australia

Health regulators seek to reduce dietary fat intake and sodium intake by stipulating cheeses be made with lower fat and lower salt contents. However, both fat and salt contribute to cheese flavour, and fat especially impacts cheese texture. Cheese is adversely affected by fat and salt reductions, and such cheeses have not been well accepted by consumers. This paper discusses research on improving low-fat cheeses and the role of salt in cheese flavour. Successfully producing lower fat cheese requires mimicking the role of fat in texture, performance, flavour and colour of cheese, as well as compensating for the lower salt-in-moisture concentration when moisture content is increased. Apart from a loss of milky
and buttery flavours contributed by milkfat there are significant challenges in controlling microbial growth and metabolism in lowfat cheeses and such cheeses often develop pronounced rosy and burnt flavours. Reduction in salt-in-moisture content allows for longer survival of lactococci starter bacteria and faster growth of non-starter lactobacilli to high numbers.