Thesis (M.S., Food Science) -- University of Idaho, 2016 | Understanding how salt reduction and replacement affects cottage cheese cream dressing properties is critical for producing such a dressing with acceptable sensory attributes. The objective of this work was to determine how salt reduction and replacement impacted rheological, tribological, and sensory characteristics of cottage cheese cream dressing. All samples were pseudoplastic and exhibited weak gel viscoelastic behavior. The magnitudes of viscosities and viscoelastic moduli varied, although differences were not always significant. pH and specific cation had the greatest impact on behavior. Near the isoelectric point of casein, viscosities were higher with more viscoelastic solid behavior. Consumers found reduced sodium and KCl-substituted formulations to be acceptable as compared to a full salt dressing. CaCl2-substituted formulations were not as acceptable. These results indicate that creation of reduced salt cottage cheese dressing is feasible, although more study on the impact on microbiological growth and dressing structure–function–texture relationships matrix is recommended.
