Evaluation of physicochemical, structural and sensory properties of synbiotic feta cheese containing beta-glucan and bifidobacterium during shelf life

Cheese is one of the most diverse dairy products, so that in different parts of the world, hundreds of types of cheese with different shapes and flavors are made with different production methods. On the other hand, today the production and consumption of probiotic foods, especially probiotic dairy products, have become very important. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the physicochemical, structural, sensory and viability characteristics of synbiotic feta cheese containing beta-glucan and bifidobacterium during the shelf life. In this study, optimization of synbiotic feta cheese formulation with variable prebiotic compounds (percentages of beta-glucan including 0, 0.5, 1 and 1.5%) and probiotic bacteria (108 , 109 bifidobacterium) and storage time (1, 30 and 60 days) was prepared. During the 60-day storage period acidity, pH, moisture, fat based on dry matter, salt, colorimetry, proteolysis, microbiological tests to evaluate the survival of probiotic bacteria, tissue and sensory evaluation were performed during 3 periods of 20 days. The results showed that the maximum moisture in the sample with beta-glucan 1.5% with inoculation 109 was (29.70), the maximum salt in the sample with beta-glucan was 0.1 with inoculation of 108 (2.52). The best dye sample in the sample had 0.5 beta-glucan with 109 inoculations (90.79). The lowest percentages of lipolysis and proteolysis were observed in the sample containing 0.5% of beta-glucan and 108 (0.32) inoculation, respectively, in the control and 108 (20.13) inoculation samples. The results of this study showed that the optimal amounts of the synbiotic combination of beta-glucan and the probiotic bacterium Bifidobacterium can bring useful and tasty food to consumers by reducing proteolysis and lipolysis and increasing the shelf life of feta cheese.