COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF SODOM APPLE EXTRACT AND LEMON JUICE AS VEGETABLE COAGULANTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HOME MADE CHEESE

Abstract

An experiment was carried out to compare the quality characteristics of cheese produced using Sodom apple and Lemon juice as plant coagulants. The weight of cheese produced from 1000ml of milk with 100ml of Sodom apple extract was 215.5g while 134.4g of cheese was obtained when Lemon juice was used. The volume of whey obtained using Sodom apple extract was 864.6ml while Lemon juice produced 939.3ml of whey. The average pH of Sodom apple cheese was 6.36 while that of lemon juice cheese produced using Lemon juice was 5.16. Proximate analysis revealed that Sodom apple cheese had crude protein content of 22.00% significantly (p<0.05) lower than Lemon juice cheese of 29.33%. Ether extract content for Sodom apple cheese was 19.00% while that of Lemon juice was 28.67%. The ash content of the cheese was 9.67% while 7.67% for Sodom apple and Lemon juice cheese respectively. The moisture content for Sodom apple cheese was 60.00% while that of Lemon juice was 46.67%. The mineral analysis revealed that cheese produced from Lemon juice was higher in sodium, potassium, phosphorus and selenium compared to cheese produced from Sodom apple. Cheese produced from Sodom apple extract had higher refrigeration weight loss of 2.80%. It can be concluded that cheese produced from Lemon juice was superior in nutrient content: sodium, potassium, phosphorus and selenium and storage stability compared to the cheese obtained from Sodom apple extract.