Ras cheese was made by the traditional method from a mixture of buffalo’s and cow ’s milk. The resultant cheese was chemically, microbiologically and sensory evaluated during ripening (90 d.). The results indicated that moisture, fat, fat in dry matter, soluble nitrogen, soluble nitrogen coefficient, total volatile fatty acids, soluble tyrosine and soluble tryptophane of fresh Ras cheese decreased significantly with the decrease of fat levels in cheese milk. However, acidity, salt, salt in serum, total nitrogen and total protein increased significantly in fresh Ras cheese with the decrease of fat levels in cheese milk. By prolonging the ripening period, moisture content decreased significantly. In contrast, acidity, salt, salt in serum, fat, fat in dry matter, total nitrogen, total protein, soluble nitrogen, soluble nitrogen coefficient, soluble tyrosine, soluble tryptophane and total volatile fatty acids increased significantly for all treatments. It is obvious that the use of different fat levels in cheese milk had no observable effect on the numbers of total bacterial count, lactic acid bacteria, as well as the psychrotrophic, proteolytic bacteria and yeasts & molds which found in the resultant fresh Ras cheese. On the other hand, population of these microorganisms increased during the ripening period up to fourth week then decreased up to the end of ripening period. In general, no tested samples of the resultant cheese were rejected by the consumers.
Keywords: Potassium Chloride, Quality Enhancement, Ras Cheese, Sodium Chloride
