Investigation on Camel, Donkey and Horse Cheese Making with a High Transformation Yield by Natural Thickeners and Lactic Coagulation

Making cheese from donkey and mares milk is considered unfeasible, due to difficulties in coagulation and curd forming. Cheese from donkey and mares milk was never produced by traditional way. Encyclopedia of Dairy Sciences 2nd edition (2011) reported that no cheese is made from equid milk. However in 2015 a pioneering study of Iannella have reported the first protocols for making fresh donkey and mares cheese using pure camel chymosin in a dedicated process, the result of his not common protocol was a curd with elastic properties and intense syneresis. Subsequently there have been only a few protocols by other researchers. Anyhow, the low cheese yield of this protocols together with a higher cost of production of the raw material currently limit practical application. Also the processing of camel milk into cheese is technically more difficult than milk from other domestic dairy animals which may relate to the poor rennetability of camel milk. Therefore, a research project was planned by Iannella which has developed a technological procedure to produce cheese from camel, donkey and mares milk with a high transformation yield by the use of locust bean gum, k- carrageenan and lactic coagulation in a dedicated process, thus with a mini mal adjustments in the manufacturing technology and equipment. The whey proteins of milk with this method are withheld and this improve the efficiency of making cheese and increase further yield of cheese however preserving body and texture similar of cheese prepared by conventional processes. In the near future this protocol or similar, they could represent a source of innovative cheese and the development definitive of a new commercial scale of cheese from donkey, mares or camel milk or from others minor milks at the same time improving food and animal biodiversity and therefore all the ensuing benefits.