Abstract:

Due to the serious shortage of calf rennet (CR) in cheese industry, the research and development of its substitutes has become a hot topic. In order to obtain a better alternative to CR, fresh porcine gastric mucosa was used as the material to extract pepsin, and crude pepsin obtained was further purified to obtain pure porcine pepsin (PPe). The cheese prepared using PPe was evaluated through the analysis of chemical compositions, yield and texture properties. Results indicated that PPe was superior to microbial rennet for better chemical composition of prepared cheese, especially at the middle dosage. In terms of textural characteristics, prepared cheese using PPe was more similar to that using CR than using microbial rennet or commercial porcine pepsin, and no obvious differences in hardness, elasticity, adhesion, gumness and chewness were observed between prepared cheeses using high dosage of PPe and CR (P＞0.05). Therefore, PPe is an attractive alternative to CR for the manufacture of cheese.

Key words: porcine pepsin, fresh cheese, chemical composition, texture