Water kefir-assisted fermentation improved quality of plant-based cheese alternative comparable with cow's milk cheese by reducing plant-origin odor and enhancing cheese-like flavours

Abstract

The growing human population in the world has led to a global food shortage and the environmental impact of animal food production is declared in various platforms. The challenges for animal breeding and the limited availability of dairy products have increased the search for alternatives to traditional cheese and other dairy products. In addition, the rising popularity of vegan diets has increased interest in plant-based food alternatives. However, these plant-based products have some limitations, especially having some difficulties to achieving the texture and flavours of dairy counterparts. This study aims to improve the cheese-like flavour of a plant-based cheese alternative (PCA) by incorporating water kefir into the product. The microbiota presents in the water kefir induced biochemical changes and altered the composition of volatiles in PCA. The addition of water kefir led to an increased level of organic acids in the PCA. Significant changes in key organic acids, relevant to cheese production, such as lactic and propionic acids, were observed during storage. In water kefir-free PCA, all free amino acids (FAAs) steadily decreased throughout storage, whereas in the water kefir-treated sample, many FAAs initially decreased and then increased at 60 days. Plant-origin compounds like benzaldehyde, responsible for apricot kernel odor, and green aldehydes associated with off-flavours, declined after 60 days. Meanwhile, compounds important for cheese flavour-e.g., ethanol, acetaldehyde, 3-methylbutanol, and ethyl acetate-increased. These findings suggest that water kefir can effectively improve the flavour of PCA.