Evaluation of White Soft and Processed Cheese Brands Available in the Egyptian Local Market and Manufactured According to the Egyptian Standard Specification

Adulteration whether unintentional or intentional might usually be followed in order to increase the margin of profit. Sometimes the regulations or the standard specifications of the country indirecly help those processors, which lead to the appearance of the adulteration and of the occurrence of low nutritional value of the dairy products in the market, protected by these regulations or standard specifications. In this study fifty six samples of some white soft cheese (34 samples) and processed cheese (22 sample) were collected from the local market and analyzed for their chemical composition (fat%, protein%, total solids %) and the presence of starch. The obtained data revealed that most of the examined samples recorded very low protein and high fat contents, besides the presence of starch in only one brand of white soft cheese, and in most of processed cheese. The low protein content in white soft and processed cheeses, as well as the high content of the fat at the expense of protein. Using of starch to increase the total solids and also the use of hydrogenated vegetable oil and fats is an inevitable consequence of the loose items in the Egyptian standardization specification. Therefore, these specifications should be reviewed and some item should be changed to achieve minimal nutritional and healthy value being requested in the dairy products.