Abstract
A review of biochemical and technological similarities and dissimilarities between soy cheese and Cheddar cheese is presented to provide guidelines for the improvements in the flavour of soy cheese. Processing technology as well as the final product of soy cheese have many similarities with Cheddar in terms of appearance, texture, mouth feel, chemical nature, biochemical processes, etc. Soy protein has many useful amino acids like Asp, Ile, Leu, Met, Phe, Trp, Tyr, Val, etc., which are precursors of flavouring compounds and the right choice of microbial cultures is necessary to benefit from them. Using low levels of sodium chloride, without the use of ethanol, and introducing new milk cheese starter and non-starter cultures like Lactococcus lactis ssp. lactis (formerly L. lactis ssp. lactis biovar. diacetylactis), Lactobacillus helveticus, Lactobacillus casei, Streptococcus lactis var. nialtigeiies and Lactococcus lactis ssp. cremoris that enhance flavour will be helpful to improve the flavour of soy cheese.