9024

Fermentation kinetic and rheology characteristics of milk processed by dynamic high pressure

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Dynamic high pressure (DHP) is a promising non-thermal process, which demonstrably modify milk constituents such as proteins and fats. Therefore, this work aimed to evaluate the effect of DHP on the fermentation kinetic and the rheological behaviour of probiotic fermented milk. Milk (2% milkfat) processed at 90°C/5minutes was subject to conventional homogenization (15/5 MPa, control) and DHP processing (100/5 MPa and 180/5 MPa) at inlet temperature of 60°C. The cultures of S. thermophilus TA40 (8 log CFU/mL) and L. acidophilus NFCM® (7 log CFU/mL) were inoculated in the milk at 43°C and the fermentation kinetic was evaluated by the pH reduction and rheological small amplitude oscillatory test (0.1 Hz, 0.1 Pa), evaluating the storage modulus (G’) over the fermentation time. The results showed that the DHP did not influence the pH reduction during fermentation, taking 6 hours to reach pH 4.6 in all samples. However, the rheological behavior exhibited a positive correlation with gel consistency (G' value) and higher pressures applied in the process, reaching at the end of the fermentation G’ values to sample 15/5 MPa of 40 Pa, 100/5 MPa of 55 Pa and 180/5 MPa of 80 Pa. The increase in consistency of fermented milk when subject to DHP is caused by the changes on the structure milk constituents, where the decrease of the fat globules size and caseins micelles, and consequently, increase of the surface area, promote interactions between protein-protein and protein-fat globules.