Ojoriz S. Apilado | Maria Cynthia R. Oliveros | Ione G. Sarmago | Veneranda A. Magpantay | Rosalina M. Lapitan
Discipline: Veterinary Medicine, Animal Science
The addition of malunggay leaf powder (MLP) in cream cheese produced from pure buffalo’s milk was investigated to compare the nutritive value, sensory quality and consumer acceptability and determine the optimum level of inclusion of MLP. The cream cheese was produced from pure buffalo’s milk and was mixed with 0% MLP (T1), 0.5% MLP (T2), 1% MLP (T3) and 1.5% MLP (T4). Moisture, fat, protein and calorie content of the cream cheese did not differ significantly among treatments while crude fiber content increased significantly with the addition of MLP. The sensory characteristics of pure cream cheese were significantly higher than those with added MLP. The inclusion levels of MLP had significant negative quadratic relationship with the color and general acceptability of the cheese. Texture, aroma, flavor and aftertaste had significant negative linear relations with the levels of MLP. Consumer acceptability of cream cheese with 0.5, 1 and 1.5% MLP was lower than 0% MLP. This indicates that malunggay leaf powder cannot be added to cream cheese from buffalo’s milk at the levels used in the study. Inclusion rate for malunggay powder lower than 0.5% should be considered in the production of cream cheese.