Aplicación de liofilizado de sunfo (Clinopodium nubigenum) en la elaboración de queso mozzarella

Abstract

The aim of this study was to apply freeze-dried sunfo (Clinopodium nubigenum) in the production of mozzarella cheese. The experimental work was carried out in the bromatology and biotechnology laboratories, the Tunshi Experimental Station of Escuela Superior Politécnica de Chimborazo, and the nutrition and quality department of the National Institute Agricultural Research (INIAP). Descriptive statistics were applied to the percentage of moisture and HCL-insoluble ashes obtained from the freeze-dried aromatic herb, resulting in 5.68% and 3.18%, respectively. The physicochemical, microbiological, and sensory properties were evaluated with 4 replicates for each mozzarella cheese treatment containing 400 g of sunfo freeze-dried as the experimental unit size at concentrations of 0%, 0.25%, 0.50%, and 0.75%. This was conducted under a completely randomized design with mean separation by Tukey (P<0.05) and a 5-point hedonic scale for sensory evaluation. Regarding the physicochemical analysis, highly significant differences were only observed in antioxidant capacity, and the best results were found in treatments T2 and T3, with 201.35 and 204.45 μm Trolox/g, respectively. The microbiological analysis did not show any statistical differences, indicating the absence of coliforms, listeria, and salmonella. In the sensory analysis, T1 and T2 received the highest acceptance with a rating of 4 (like) in all evaluation parameters. Finally, when determining production costs using the cost-benefit ratio, the best economic benefit was obtained with treatment T0, with a production cost of $7.56 per kilogram due to the absence of freeze-dried application. We conclude that T2 exhibited the best physicochemical and sensory characteristics, and despite not having the best economic benefit, the difference was only $0.02 compared to the best treatment. Further studies on sunfo and its antioxidant capacity are recommended.