Effects of ripening cheese milk on the quality of soft cheese

White soft cheeses were manufactured from carabao's milk ripened at varying temperatures, one at ordinary room temperature, the other at cold room (temperature range is from 2-5 deg C) and third lot serving as the control. This study was conducted with the aim of knowing the efffects of ripening at the quality of white soft cheese and to determine the optimum acidity of the cheese milk by which it can stand pasteurization without coagulation. As expected, ripening of cheese milk resulted to an increase in the acidity of the raw carabao milk. Acidity value of the raw milk as high as 0.38 percent lactic acid still survived pasteurization temperature of 72 deg C without coagulation. Observations in this experiment also showed that acidity above 0.38%, the milk would clot-on-boiling. Pasteurization of milk at 72 deg C for 10 seconds reduced bacterial load of the milk by as much as 98.87%. Rennet coagulation was found to be faster (22 min) when milk was ripened at cold room, 22.00 minutes. Coagulation time observed for milk ripened at room temperature was 23.80 minutes, and for the control, it was 35.80 minutes. High acid milk coagulated faster than low acid milk. Fat losses in whey in high acid milk was found to be higher than low acid milk. Analysis of variance for moisture content, total solids and fat content of the cheese showed that variation among treatments was insignificant. Effect of ripening the cheesemilk on the moisture content, total solids and fat content of the cheese was highly insignificant. The amount of salt retained in the curd as well as the pH of the cheese on the other hand, were found to vary significantly among treatments. Low acid milk retained more salt in the curd produced than high acid milk. Ripening of cheese milk at room temperature retained only 1.31 percent salt, in the cold room, the amount of salt retained was only 1.38 percent compared to the control which was 1.54 percent. High acid milk produced more acidic curd than low acid milk. Cheeses showed an average pH of 5.02 and 5.06 for lots ripened at room and cold temperatures respectively, and a pH of 5.49 for the control lot. There was insignificant variation among treatments for the mean scores of flavor and aroma, body texture, color and general acceptability of the cheeses