Assessment physical-chemical, microbiological and sensory of fresh cheese using ficin as a biocatalyst

Abstract

In the present investigation, it was proposed to carry out a comparative analysis of cheese made with the proteolytic enzyme ficin, which is derived from the latex of Ficus carica known as (fig). since its proteolytic activity is manifested by denaturing its substrate proteins by breaking the disulfide bonds generated by sulforated amino acids identified as cysteine ​​since it belongs to the group of thiol proteases and is very similar to papain that is extracted from papaya latex, and commercial cheese, for which the T-student test was used, with a unit size of 4 liters with 5 repetitions where in the physical-chemical analysis similar values ​​were obtained in% of humidity, Aw, pH except for protein since there is a difference of 8.86%; While the enzymatic activity presents values ​​of 14.87 U / mg of protein with a time of 58 seconds corresponding to an effective enzymatic speed and clotting time. No presence of pathogenic microorganisms was reported in the microbiological analysis. In the sensory analysis, the paired preference test was used where 100% of tasters preferred commercial fresh cheese. Enzymatic purification is recommended to improve protein content.