Physico-Chemical and Microbial Quality of Soft-White Cheese Made from Raw Milk with Different Somatic Counts

The study was conceptualized to assess the effect of somatic cell count on the quality of raw milk and soft-white cheese. Cow’s milk was classified into normal (T1), trace (T2) and positive 1 (T3) based on the direct microscopic somatic cell count (SCC). Soft-white cheese was subjected to quality changes; such as physio-chemical compositions: pH, titratable acidity, moisture content, total solids, protein and fat recovery; and total microbial count. Milk samples were subjected to quality analyses prior to cheese manufacture. All samples passed the alcohol precipitation and clot-on-boiling tests. Significant differences were observed in the pH, titratable acidity, moisture, protein, fat and total solids contents of cheese made from T1, T2 and T3 milk. Cheese from normal milk had the lowest titratable acidity from day 0 until day 11 indicating its good keeping quality. The high number of microbial counts even on the 0 days of storage has been observed in soft-white cheese made from the high number of somatic cells. The findings of the study indicate that milk with elevated SCC could compromise the typical sensory quality of the product and could pass the standard quality assessment; however, the quality of the resulting product would be inferior to normal milk. It is recommended that SCC determination be included in the quality assessment protocol on the farm.