International Journal of Food Properties

ISSN: 1094-2912 (Print) 1532-2386 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ljfp20

Textural Properties of Commercial Processed

Cheese Spreads: Instrumental and Sensory
Evaluations

Dorra Ghorbel, Nasreddine Ben Bettaïeb, Faten Ghrib, Mourad Ben Slema &
Hamadi Attia

To cite this article: Dorra Ghorbel, Nasreddine Ben Bettaïeb, Faten Ghrib, Mourad Ben Slema &
Hamadi Attia (2016) Textural Properties of Commercial Processed Cheese Spreads: Instrumental
and Sensory Evaluations, International Journal of Food Properties, 19:7, 1513-1521, DOI:
10.1080/10942912.2015.1065425

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/10942912.2015.1065425

Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC Accepted author version posted online: 17
Aug 2015.
Published online: 17 Aug 2015.

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International Journal of Food Properties, 19:1513–1521, 2016
Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 1094-2912 print/1532-2386 online
DOI: 10.1080/10942912.2015.1065425

Textural Properties of Commercial Processed Cheese Spreads:

Instrumental and Sensory Evaluations

Dorra Ghorbel1,2, Nasreddine Ben Bettaïeb1,3, Faten Ghrib1, Mourad Ben Slema1, and
Hamadi Attia2
1
INSAT, University of Carthage, Centre Urbain Nord, Tunis, Tunisia
2
ENIS, LAVASA, University of Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia
3
CNSTN, Technopole of Sidi Thabet, Ariana, Tunisia

The textural properties of four commercial processed cheese spreads were analyzed by means of a
penetrometric test at 20°C with different penetration rates. The hardness index corresponding to the
maximum stress of penetration was determined. A power law regression model was observed between
the hardness index and the deformation rate applied. Thereby, giving new rheological parameters, κ, the
y-intercept of the curve and, α, its slope. Four descriptors were tested in textural sensory evaluations:
firmness, adhesiveness, melting, and spreadability. Significant linear regressions were observed
between hardness index (or κ) and the panel assessment for firmness and between κ and the sensory
spreadability.

Keywords: Processed cheese spread, Texture, Penetrometry, Hardness, Sensory.

INTRODUCTION

Processed cheese spreads are a main type of processed cheese known for their ability to be spread
and to be made into slices. To manufacture the spreadable-type processed cheese, natural cheeses
are vigorously blended and heated with some other ingredients including essentially emulsifying
salts and fat. The physicochemical processes involve the breakdown of the initial paracaseinate
network of natural cheese in order to obtain a homogenous molten mass immobilizing water and
emulsifying fat. During the cooling phase, a new three-dimensional proteinic network is formed by
protein–protein interactions and interactions between the dispersed emulsified fat and casein
molecules, whereas fat crystallizes.[1] Both constituents govern the rheological and the textural
properties of the obtained processed cheese spreads.[2]
Texture is an important sensory property that determines the consumer acceptance of a
foodstuff.[3] Traditionally, textural assessments in the food industry have been carried out by
taste panels. These latter may or may not be formally trained in the evaluation of textural

Received 20 February 2015; accepted 20 June 2015.

Address correspondence to Dr. Dorra Ghorbel, Biological and Chemical Engineering, Centre Urbain Nord, B.P. 676,
1080, Tunis, Cedex, Tunisia. E-mail: Dorra.Ghorbel@insat.rnu.tn
Color versions of one or more of the figures in the article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/ljfp.

1513
1514 GHORBEL ET AL.

characteristics. Otherwise, the use of instrumental data such as rheological properties proved
efficient since it provides more reproducible and accurate results. Due to rapidity and cost saving
as well, food technologists have always been looking for correlations between sensory evaluations
and instrumental measurements.[3,4] Penetrometry, which is the most common textural instrumental
test applied to foodstuff, has been used during the last few years to assess the textural properties of
the processed cheese spreads, via the texture profile analysis (TPA) due to the difficulties observed
during sample manipulation.[5–9]
Using both a texture analyzer and taste panel, several authors have tried to relate instrumental
data to sensory evaluations of different cheese-types texture. From cream cheese[10] to hard
cheeses,[11] the sensory attributes describing the cheese texture were varied: hardness (or firmness),
cohesiveness, adhesiveness, spreadability, and melting. On the other hand, rheological parameters
have been chosen with respect to the strain applied in the sensory tests and successful comparisons
were made between instrumental and sensory evaluations. For example, Hennequin and Hardy[12]
studied the textural properties of various soft cheeses and found a good agreement between the
instrument and the panel for hardness once the physical property was assessed by a penetrometric
method and a TPA. Drake and others[13] correlated sensory firmness and slipperiness of reduced-fat
processed cheeses (block-type and non-spreadable ones) to creep-recovery measurements. The
same authors tried to correlate TPA measurements to the corresponding sensory evaluations but a
poor discriminating power was observed for this instrumental characterization. However, only few
studies have investigated the relationships between instrumental and sensory measurements of the
textural properties of the spreadable-type processed cheese.[5,14] Moreover, it is almost certain that
there was negligible study undertaken on the commercial processed cheese spreads. The aim of this
investigation is to compare the textural data, obtained from an instrumental method applied to
commercial processed cheese spreads, to the one obtained from a trained taste panel.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Processed Cheese Spreads

Four different processed cheese spreads were purchased from the Tunisian market and selected as
the most important international and local brands. They are named as follows: Président, Vache Qui
Rit, Land’Or, and Riki and will be referred to as A, B, C, and D, respectively. Cheeses were
packaged in a paper-made box containing 24 portions of 14.5
0.7 g. Composition of the test
products, as per the labeling on each package are given in Table 1. During the whole analysis
period, the processed cheeses were stored at +5°C. Samples were allowed to equilibrate at +20°C,
24 h prior to evaluations.

TABLE 1
Composition of the test products

Processed cheese A B C D

Cheeses + + + +
Butter + +
Milk +
Skimmed milk + +
Milk fat + +
Milk proteins + + +
Lactoserum + + +
Emulsifying salts + + + +
 TEXTURE OF PROCESSED CHEESE SPREADS 1515

Physicochemical Analyses
Processed cheese spreads were characterized with respect to chemical composition: dry matter
(DM),[15] fat content,[16] total nitrogen expressed as protein content,[17] and pH. All analyses were
achieved in triplicate. Fat content in DM (g fat/100 g DM, Fat/DM) and moisture in non-fat solids
(g water/100 g non-fat solids, MNFS) were calculated.

Rheological Texture Analysis

Equilibrated cheese portions were introduced into metallic capsules of 11-mm height and 30-mm
diameter to make disk-shaped slices. Attention was given when forming the specimen to avoid
deformation. The small amount of cheese that overflows from the above part of the capsule was
shaved using a plastic spatula. The capsule gently filled with cheese was introduced in a specific
stainless steel cell (8.8 cm  15.0 cm  2.0 cm) containing a hole with the same dimensions
than the capsule. It was used to maintain its temperature at the fixed value by circulating water
coming from a circulator bath (Julabo F25MD, Labortechnik GmbH, Germany). The temperature
of the sample and the cell (+20°C) was verified before measurements using an auto-ranging digital
multimeter (M-3890D, Metex Instruments, Korea). Consequently, the central temperature of a
control specimen was measured. With regards to the cell, two small holes created in its two
opposite faces allowed the introduction of the thermocouple without touching the cheese sample.
Then the sample introduced in the cell was allowed to rest 5 min in order to relax stresses induced
by the preparation procedure.
Penetration test on maintained and equilibrated samples was performed using a texture analyzer
TA-XT2i of 50 N (Stable Micro Systems, Ltd, UK). A stainless steel flat plate probe with 6-mm
diameter was attached to the moving crosshead. Five penetration rates were tested: 0.1, 0.4, 1.0,
4.0, and 10.0 mm/s. All measurements were carried out in triplicate. Force versus displacement (or
time) plots were recorded from the penetration test. The data collected from these curves were
compared to those obtained from a trained taste panel.

Descriptive Sensory Analysis

The texture descriptive analysis was conducted on the four processed cheese spreads in parallel
with the rheological texture analysis. The selection of the panelists was based on interest, time
available, and a liking for processed cheese spreads. Panelists were university students aging
from 21 to 26 years: 10 were female and 10 were male. During training, panelists were asked
to identify and define mouth texture terms. They were given an assortment of anonymous
commercial processed cheese spreads, to aid in development of terms, including: firmness,
adhesiveness, melting, and spreadability (Table 2). Panelists marked responses on 10-point
numerical intensity scales anchored on the left with “not” and on the right with “very.” They
received about 6 h of training over the course of 3 days during which they developed and
defined descriptors. Cheese samples subjected to sensory analysis were previously equilibrated
at 20°C during 24 h.

Statistical Analyses of Data

Student test was applied to the physicochemical and rheological data to compare the means of
independent samples at a risk of 5%. One and two-way analyses of variance (ANOVA) were
performed on the experimental results to determine whether statistically significant differences
occurred among means. All differences considered as significant are at least P < 0.05 or experi-
mentally determined Fishers’ F greater than the theoretical one obtained by statistical tables.
1516 GHORBEL ET AL.

TABLE 2
Physicochemical characteristics of processed cheeses

Cheese A B C D

DM (%)(1,2) 44.22 (
0.10)b 47.11 (
0.09)d 46.49 (
0.16)c 42.35 (
0.11)a

Fat/DM (%)(3) 60.68 (
0.65)ab 59.44 (
1.84)a 61.66 (
0.62)b 59.82 (
0.68)a
Protein (%)(2) 9.73 (
0.28)bc 10.13 (
0.16)c 9.76 (
0.11)b 8.66 (
0.21)a
pH 5.56 (
0.02)a 5.66 (
0.02)b 5.96 (
0.02)d 5.87 (
0.01)c
MNFS (%)(4) 320.8 (
3.7)c 277.2 (
13.0)a 300.3 (
7.2)b 338.8 (
3.9)d
1
DM: dry matter; 2Wet basis (g/100 g cheese); 3Fat in dry matter (g fat/100 g dry matter); 4Moisture in non-fat solids
(g water/100 g non-fat solids); Means with different superscript letters (a–d) are statistically different at p < 0.05; Numbers in
parentheses correspond to standard deviation (n = 3).

ANOVA was achieved on the hardness index (Hi) measurements to examine the effect of both
factors « cheese » and « penetration rate », in order to determine the discriminating power of the
different penetration rates used. The sensory results were also subjected to ANOVA tests. The
factors « panelist » and « cheese » were thus separately studied.
The multiple regression analysis was carried out to determine individual relationships
between sensory and rheological characteristics. The aim here was to predict sensory evalua-
tions from instrumental rheological measurements. A regression was considered as statistically
significant for p < 0.05 with a high coefficient of determination (R2). The prediction models
obtained consisted only of those variables which were statistically significant (p < 0.05). The
correlation analysis (Pearson correlation) was also used. All the statistical analysis of data was
conducted using the statistical software SPSS 17.0 (on PC; SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL). The
repeatability of the results was evaluated by calculating the coefficient of variation (CV% =
standard deviation/mean value).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Physicochemical Characteristics
The physicochemical properties of the four processed cheeses are summarized in Table 2. DM and
pH values agree closely with those previously obtained from high-fat spreadable processed cheeses
(70% Fat/DM).[18] Lee et al.[19] and Dimitreli and Thomareis[2] analyzed processed cheese spreads
prepared in lab-scale with large chemical properties (moisture, fat, and protein contents) and pH
values including those obtained through this study. The results of a Student test conducted on the
physicochemical data showed that the four processed cheeses differed significantly from each other
not only in DM and pH, but also to a smaller extent, in protein and fat contents (Table 2).

Rheological Behavior
The experimentally determined values of the resistance to penetration are plotted against
displacement. Examples of typical curves obtained with the commercial processed cheese
spreads are given in Fig. 1. Similar behaviors were observed for the five tested penetration
rates. The resistance to probe penetration increased until a certain value, then leveled off. As
to the four processed cheese spreads, the force measured at the plateau region (Fig. 1)
increased with the penetration rate due to viscoelasticity (dissipation of energy at low shear
 TEXTURE OF PROCESSED CHEESE SPREADS 1517

140

120

100
Force (g)

80

60

40

20

0
0 1 2 3 4 5
Displacement (mm)
FIGURE 1 Force versus displacement curves obtained during penetration of cheese B (20°C) with five crosshead
rates (○:0.1 mm/s, ▲:0.4 mm/s, Δ:1.0 mm/s, ■:4.0 mm/s, and □:10.0 mm/s). For clarity, only 10 points are presented
by curve (continuous lines correspond to experimental results).

rates). From the force-displacement curves, a Hi corresponding to the maximum stress

(maximum force/contact surface) was determined and was observed to display a high degree
of repeatability (mean coefficient of variation = 4.58%). The mean Hi was calculated from
each triplicate and plotted against the strain rate, ε_ (penetration rate/initial height of the
sample). The resulting curves were best fit (p < 0.001) by a power law (Eq. [1]), with
coefficient of determination (R2) values greater than 0.93 (Fig. 2). These results, which are
observed for the first time on such a foodstuff, underline the suitability of the penetration test
in assessing the rheological behavior of the processed cheese spreads since it highlights its
viscoelastic behavior.
Hi ¼ κ : ε:α (1)
κ: the value of the stress (Pa) at a deformation rate of 1/s; α: the slope of the curve in logarithmic
scales, which shows the sensitivity of the cheese sample to the deformation rate. Both coefficients
were highly significant (p < 0.001). Results are given in Table 3.
While cheeses A and D gave similar values of the coefficient κ (p > 0.05), cheeses B and C gave
statistically different coefficients κ (p < 0.05; see Table 3). The slope α was the same in the four
commercial cheeses, although they were manufactured in different factories with different for-
mulations and raw materials (see Table 2). A two-way ANOVA on the factors « cheese » and
« penetration rate » was applied to Hi. The results showed a good discriminating power of both
factors: Fisher’s F was higher than the theoretical one (442.54 for the factor « cheese », F0.05 =
2.84 and 227.82 for the factor « penetration rate », F0.05 = 2.61). The interaction between both
factors was significant (Fisher’s F = 6.54, F0.05 = 2.00), but with smaller effect than that of the
factors themselves.
Few studies have focused on the applicability of the penetrometry test on the spreadable-type
processed cheese, as the one of Lee and Klostermeyer.[20] These authors determined a hardness
1518 GHORBEL ET AL.

500

400

300
H (Pa)
i

200

100
10 100 1000

FIGURE 2 Hardness index calculated from the force versus displacement curves plotted against the deformation
rate for the four cheeses (▲: A, ♦: B, ●: C, and ■: D). The four lines represent the fit of power laws to the data
(Eq. 5). Error bars correspond to standard deviation.

TABLE 3
Rheological parameters of the four processed cheeses (Eq. 5)

Cheese A B C D

α 0.143 (
0.016)a 0.145 (
0.007)a 0.134 (
0.015)a 0.140 (
0.006)a

κ 92.6 (
7.0)a 180.5 (
7.2)c 148.1 (
6.6)b 103.5 (
4.1)a

Mean values for n = 3; Means with different superscript letters (a–c) are statistically different at p < 0.05;
Numbers in parentheses correspond to standard deviation.

value (g/cm2) after the penetration of a Perspex cylindrical probe into processed cheese spreads
prepared in lab-scale. The hardness value was the force required to penetrate the sample to a depth
of 10 mm at a speed of 2 mm/s per unit on a cross-sectional area of the probe. However, there is no
published work dealing with the applicability of penetrometry on commercial processed cheese
spreads.

Descriptive Sensory Analysis

A one-way ANOVA on the factor « panelist » applied to the sensory evaluations showed that
the mean values of firmness, adhesiveness, melting, and spreadability were not statistically
different among panelists (p ˃ 0.05). One can then assume the absence of a panelist effect on
the realized sensory assessments and assume that the training has been well conducted. A
second ANOVA on the factor « cheese » which was applied to the panel assessments of the
four descriptors proved statistically significant differences of firmness (p < 0.001), melting (p <
0.01), and spreadability (p < 0.001) for the four cheeses. The best discriminating power (higher
 TEXTURE OF PROCESSED CHEESE SPREADS 1519

FIGURE 3 Box plots of the sensory evaluation for firmness, adhesiveness, melting, and spreadability.

Fisher’s F) was obtained with firmness (F = 23.27) and spreadability (F = 10.67). Refering to
the panel (Fig. 3), the firmer sample was B, followed by C, and the softer ones were D and A.
The panel had some difficulties discerning between these two latter. The most spreadable
samples were the softer ones which melted more easily (D and A), while the least spreadable
samples were the firmer ones and the more difficult to melt (B and C). These observations are
obvious since softness enhances the ability of the specimen to spread once shared between a
knife and a flat surface or between tongue and palate which allowed melting in the mouth easy.
Besides, correlation analysis between the sensory terms showed significant linear correlations
between firmness and spreadability (p < 0.001, R2 = 0.60), then between firmness and melting
(p < 0.01, R2 = 0.49), and finally between spreadability and melting (p < 0.001, R2 = 0.72).
However, according to ANOVA test, panelists did not distinguish between the adhesiveness of
the different cheeses (p ˃ 0.05).

Regression Analysis
Good agreement was found between the firmness panel appraisal and the hardness instrumental
measurement (Hi). Linear regressions were established between these two parameters (R2 = 0.80;
p < 0.001). Similar behavior was observed between firmness and k. The correlations of both
sensory and instrumental data related to the cheese firmness are expected due to the similarities
observed between these two techniques. Hi and κ were also significantly correlated to adhesive-
ness, spreadability, and melting by linear equations. The best coefficient of determination was
obtained between k and spreadability (R2 = 0.51; p < 0.01). These equations allow the
1520 GHORBEL ET AL.

manufacturer to predict the sensory assessment of some textural properties through faster and more
accurate instrumental methods, which can facilitate control of the cheese quality product and as a
result reduce cost.

CONCLUSIONS

Through this study, it was demonstrated that the penetration test may prove to be a useful
method not only to assess the textural properties of the commercial spreadable-type processed
cheeses but also to predict their sensory firmness, spreadability, and melting. Textural experi-
ments were performed at +20°C, which is a temperature closer to the consumption one in
moderate climate countries. However, temperature was seen to display an important effect on
the rheological properties of processed cheese spreads, as described in a previous work.[21] It
should be of great interest to examine the influence of temperature on the textural properties of
commercial processed cheeses spreads and to elucidate the significance of the power law
parameters α and κ.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors gratefully acknowledge Mr. Taïeb Jerbi and Mr. Mokhtar Kraiem (CNSTN, Tunisia)
for precious collaboration and Mrs. Samia Ben Salah for her help.

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