Effect of the Fish Oil Fortified Chitosan Edible Film on Microbiological, Chemical Composition and Sensory Properties of Gobek Kashar Cheese during Ripening Time

Objective of the present study is to investigate the effect of coated edible films with chitosan solutions enriched with essential oil (EO) on the chemical, microbial and sensory properties of Kashar cheese during ripening time. Generally, no differences were found in total aerobic mesophilic bacteria, streptococci and lactoccocci counts among cheeses but these microorganism counts increased during 60 and 90 d storage especially in C1 (uncoated sample) as compared with coated samples. Antimicrobial effectiveness of the films against moulds was measured on 30, 60, and 90 d of storage. In addition of fish EO into chitosan edible films samples were showed to affect significantly decreased the moulds (p<0.05) as 1.15 Log CFU/g in C4 (with fish oil (1% w/v) fortified chitosan film) on the 90th d, while in C1 as 3.89 Log CFU/g on the 90th d of ripening. Compared to other cheese samples, C2 (coated with chitosan film) and C4 coated cheese samples revealed higher levels of water-soluble nitrogen and ripening index at the end of storage. C2 coated cheese samples were preferred more by the panellists while C4 coated cheese samples received the lowest scores.