Production and Quality Evaluation of Soy Cheese (Tofu) Using Selected Coagulants
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Abstract
Food formulations that incorporate soy ingredients are being exploited as veritable alternatives. Cheese analogues are healthy alternatives to benefit from consuming functional foods. There is the need to enhance the production and quality of soy cheese. In this work, soy cheeses (Tofu) were prepared from soybean using four selected coagulants – Moringa oliefera seeds extract (MC), Tamarind fruit pulp extract (TC), Lime juice (LC) and Alum (AC). The effects of the coagulants on the physico-chemical, microbial and sensory qualities of the soy cheese products were evaluated. The results of the physical properties of the samples showed that MC gave higher yield (12.84 %) and acidity (0.37 %), while AC had the highest values in hardness (84.55 %) and dry matter (36.72 %) contents. The proximate composition showed that MC had the lowest moisture (60.52%) but highest protein (22.51%) contents. The ash contents of the soy cheese from the plant coagulants MC (3.00 %), TC (2.80 %) and LC (3.5%) were lower than that of the Alum coagulant AC (3.89%.).The cheese from Alum coagulant (AC) had more minerals than those from plant coagulants.TC had the highest Vitamin C (2.69 mg/100g) while MC had the highest vitamin B1 (6.07 mg/100g) and B2 (29.21 mg/100g) contents. There was no detection of coliform in the soy cheese samples. There were no significant difference (p>0.05) in the appearance and overall acceptability of sample MC and sample LC. Sample MC from Moringa oliefera seed cake extract coagulant had the highest sensory scores for Flavour (8.35), texture (8.40) and overall acceptability (8.63).The results of quality properties of the cheeses differed with the coagulants used. Moringa oliefera coagulated cheese had the most improved quality of all the samples.
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References
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