Production and properties of a semi-hard cheese made from soya milk

A semi-hard soya cheese, with mean moisture content 61.5%, crude protein 21 .8% and fat 2.6%, was produced from reconstituted soya-milk powder using a starter culture of Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus fermentum. The physical properties of the cheese, as determined with a Texture Profile Analyser, were similar to a cheese made to the same compositional standard s from bovine milk. A taste panel of Far Eastern subjects did not find the flavour of the fresh soya cheese acceptable but, when cubes of the cheese ( 1 cm(3)) were deep-fried in corn oil, the hedonic rating improved significa ntly. It is suggested that the cheese could be used as a protein-rich compo nent of a meal, e.g. to replace meat in a stew, or as a 'snack food'.