Mixing sweet cream buttermilk with whole milk to produce cream cheese

Buttermilk is an important by-product of the manufacture of butter. Sweet-cream buttermilk (SCBM) is similar in composition to skim milk, except for its high phospholipid and milk fat globular membrane protein content. The main objective of this investigation was to produce optimum quality cream cheese by replacing whole milk with different proportions of SCBM (5, 10, 16, 20, 26, 30, 36, 40, 45, and 50%). Statistical analysis showed that there were significant differences (p < 0.05) between the chemical and organoleptic properties of the samples. As the percentage of SCBM increased, the chemical composition of total solids, fat, protein, fat in dry matter (FDM) and ash of cheese milk decreased significantly, leading to a softer, moister curd. Samples prepared with more than 25% SCBM were not acceptable to the taste panel. The cream cheeses prepared using 25% and 30% SCBM had the highest yields. Total solids and FDM were strong predictors of cheese yield (r(2) approximate to 0.589). The results also showed that the best range for replacement using SCBM is 20-25%.