The effects of different maltodextrin ratios used in the white cheese powder production on the quality of cheese emulsion and cheese powder

Cheese powder is a microbiologically safe product which can be used in various products chips, instant soups, sauces, pizza, and pasta. Maltodextrin (MD) is preferred in food powder production because of its features such as drying aid, anti-caking, oxygen barriers, flavor enhancer, fat substitute, bulking agent and water retention. The thesis aims to identify the effects of the different MD ratios in cheese emulsions and cheese powder qualities. Also, the detectability of MD existence and MD amount in cheese powder was investigated. Accordingly, MD ratio studies were done with preliminary tests and it was decided to substitute with MD at 10%, 20%, 30%, and 40% of the cheese dry matter (MACP). The cheese powder without MD is accepted as a control sample (CON). Before the cheese powder production; composition, stability, rheological and morphological features of the cheese emulsion (CE) were determined. The increase in the MD ratio was caused a decrease in emulsion's apparent viscosities and an increase in the appearance of fat globules in emulsion microstructure. Additionally, slight creaming was observed on the surface of 30% and 40% MACE's. After that, CP production with the stated MD ratios was performed and samples were stored for 12 months. With the increase of MD ratio, fat, protein, salt, ash, titratable acidity, and pH values were decreased. Dry matter and water activity values were found suitable for powdered products (98.11-98.55%; 0.11-0.16%). Finally, method studies on the determination of MD presence in CP by FT-IR Spectroscopy and TLC were performed. CP samples were characterized by FT-IR Spectroscopy, classified and clustered by SIMCA and HCA. Samples were classified into functional groups successfully in the fingerprint region (1860-650 cm-1) and discriminating power plots were collected. PLS calibrations were used for MD ratio determination in CP samples. Firstly, MD was added directly to CP at different ratios. 0-25%, 0-50%, and 0-100% models were created with these samples. The prediction of MD amount in cheese powders (CON, 10% MACP, 20% MACP, 30% MACP, 40% MACP) was done and predicted values with standard deviations were shown. Predicted values were found extremely high. After that, cross-validation was applied to each CP samples. The predicted values of CP samples were found; 1.16 ± 1.10% for CON, 9.62±0.79% for 10% MACP, 21.23±0.41% for 20% MACP, 29.69±0.92% for 30% MACP and 38.92±0.83% for 40% MACP with low standard deviations. It is recommended that calibration samples should be produced with the same procedure as the CP samples produced. To determine the presence of MD by TLC, a method was developed and the presence of MD has been clearly shown. Keywords: FTIR, TLC, cheese powder, cheese emulsion, spray drying