The Influence of Starter Cultures on Sensory and Physicochemical Characteristics of Plant-based Cheese View Digital Media

Workshop Presentation
Irene Darkwa,  Hennie Fisher  

There has been a global increase in the adoption of plant-based dietary patterns as opposed to animal rich diets. Consumers are moving away from animal rich diets due to health, religious, ethical, cultural, environmental, and dairy intolerance. The plant-based diet can provide numerous health benefits for consumers and are becoming increasingly popular due to their health benefits. Consumer requests for animal friendly products have garnered new interest for plant-based cheese alternatives which are also increasingly becoming the most sought out dairy alternative. Tiger nuts are a relatively unknown and underutilised crop found mainly on the African continent and in the Mediterranean regions. The nutritional benefits are numerous, used generally in healthy beverages, oils, flour and eaten as a snack. Grown in West Africa and often sold on the streets by women as a source of income its full benefits have not been explored. They are available yearly and using it to produce cheese will offer another use for the nuts and impact on income the women can make to sustain their households. The study used milk derived from tiger nuts and starter cultures to produce a cheese like plant-based cheese and assessed the physicochemical, microbial and sensory characteristics. The sensory analysis was an affective test (acceptance and preference) of consumers which established sensory properties such as flavour, texture, colour, aroma, appearance, taste and overall acceptability. It can be concluded that tiger nuts can be used to make a cheese like product, which can provide consumers with an alternative plant-based product.