Use of Chicken Pepsin in Cheese Making

Obinna, V. O.^1* & Odo, P. C.²

¹Department of Food Technology, Akanu Ibiam Federal Polytechnic, Unwana Ebonyi State
²Department of Food Technology, Federal Polytechnic, Nekede Imo State

Dr. Obinna, V. O., Department of Food Technology, Akanu Ibiam Federal Polytechnic, Unwana Ebonyi State.

Keywords: Chicken Pepsin; Cheese Making; Coagulation

Abstract

Chicken pepsin was tried in the production cheese as a replacement for rennet, which is conventionally used as a coagulant in cheese production. 8 litres of milk was purchased from pastoral Fulanis in Afikpo and was pasteurised at 72^°C for 15 seconds and cooled to 32^°C. After the cooling, the pasteurised milk was shared into two portions. 10% of cheese culture was added followed by the addition of CaCl₂ solution while another 10% of chicken pepsin extracted from the gizzard of a chicken was then added to the second portion. The milk portions were well stirred for about a minute and then left in a water bath, maintaining the temperature at 32^°C until coagulation was achieved. Results show that semi-hard cheese made with chicken pepsin as a coagulating enzyme has more butterfat (26%) than that from the traditional calf rennet (24.5%). However, soft cheese resulting from the use of chicken pepsin has lower butterfat (11%) than that from the rennet enzyme (12.5%). The yield of soft cheese from chicken pepsin is less than that of half (8%) from rennet enzyme. The highest loss of protein was recorded in the whey of semi-hard cheese from rennet enzyme. The sensory evaluation results show that all the varieties of cheese were acceptable to the investigating panellists. The research concludes that a good and acceptable quality cheese could be produced using pepsin extracted from chicken gizzard. It is recommended that chicken pepsin be exploited as this would further enhance the value chain of poultry products.

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