Formulating polymeric gels simulating soft cheeses’ texture

Various gels formulated from mixtures of compounds—gelatin, guar, karaya gum, xanthan gum, maltodextrin, and starch—were designed. The puncture test was used to determine firmness, while the stress relaxation test was used to evaluate the viscoelastic behavior of the gels. Relaxation time constants and elastic modulus were obtained by fitting stress relaxation curves to a three-parameter Maxwell model. These rheological parameters were then compared to that of 10-day-old Coulommiers and Camembert cheeses. Polymeric gels made up of gelatin, maltodextrin, and starch were found to imitate best the textural properties of the cheeses. The effect of gelatin, maltodextrin, and starch content on rheological properties of the gels was studied using a three-component mixture design. A linear dependence of firmness, first-term relaxation time, and elastic modulus on composition of simulants was noted. No significant effect of interactions between components was observed on the rheological properties. The mixture design was also successful in determining the optimum gelatin, maltodextrin, and starch contents of the gel model, simulating closely the firmness and elastic modulus of the cheeses. The first-term relaxation time constant of simulants was greater than that of both cheeses. This suggested that simulants had a more compact, less porous, solid matrix than cheeses. Nonetheless, the polymeric gel provides a good standard for cheese texture sensory training and instrument calibration when designing packaging.