Application of Ximenia americana seed mucilage as a fat substitute to enhance the characteristics of low-fat Cheddar cheese

This study aimed to enhance the characteristics of low-fat Cheddar cheese using X. americana seed mucilage as a fat substitute and to evaluate the Cheddar cheese’s characteristics, antidiabetic and cholesterol lowering roles using an in vivo method. Low-fat Cheddar cheese with 0.72% fat content was produced with addition of 0.84% of X. americana seed mucilage. A full-fat and low-fat Cheddar cheeses were used as a control for comparison. Mucilage added low-fat Cheddar cheese had a higher total bacterial count (8.25 × 10⁶ CFU/ mL) than the full-fat Cheddar cheese (3.60 × 10⁶ CFU/ mL) at 60 days of repining period. It also had the highest water-soluble nitrogen (18.01%), total free fatty acids (2.65%), and titratable acidity (3.54%) at the 60 days of ripening period. Whereas, the full-fat Cheddar cheese had more palmitic acid (36.05 g/ 100 g) than the mucilage contained low-fat Cheddar cheese (17.28 g/ 100 g). This shows that full-fat Cheddar cheese could relatively increase low density lipoprotein cholesterol and contributes to cardiovascular diseases. The in vivo study revealed that the mucilage added low-fat Cheddar cheese had beneficial antidiabetic and cholesterol lowering roles. Compared to the control Cheddar cheeses, addition of mucilage enhanced the texture, color, and sensory qualities. Therefore, utilizing X. americana seed mucilage as a fat substitute in low fat Cheddar cheese can be a potential alternative in cheese industry.