Rheological characterization of commercial Burgos-type ultrafiltered fresh cheeses

Burgos-type cheese is an ultrafiltered soft fresh cheese widely commercialized in Spain. Its structural behavior against external forces is of great importance for the dairy industry, since consumer acceptance depends mainly on texture. In the present study, dynamic and static oscillatory shear rheological analyses of 15 commercial Burgos-type fresh cheeses of different composition, brand and species were carried out to determine the relationship between cheese characteristics and rheological properties. Cheeses were differentiated mainly based on their fat:protein (F:P) ratio into 3 groups: low (L, F:P <= 0.1), medium (M, 0.1 < F:P < 0.9) and high (H, F:P >= 0.9). H cheeses showed higher complex modulus (G*(0), 4131 +/- 1238 Pa) when compared to L (2366 +/- 1825 Pa), mainly related to cheese protein levels. L cheeses presented higher compliance (13.0 +/- 4.5 x 10(-4) Pa-1) than H (6.5 +/- 3.3 x 10(-4) Pa-1), indicating differences in the cohesiveness of the cheese matrix. The present research shows that low amplitude shear analysis together with creep-recovery assays would be complementary tools suitable for the rheological characterization of Burgos-type fresh cheeses and that their F:P ratio has a strong impact on cheese final structure.