Abstract #T83

# T83
Quantification of starch through an enzymatic starch assay to quantify flow aid concentrations in shredded cheeses.
A. Zumbusch1, T. Schoenfuss*1, 1University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN.

Starch is a common ingredient in flow aids used in the production of shredded cheese. It serves as an anticaking agent as well as a carrier for antimycotics and oxygen scavengers to increase shelf-life and quality. There is no current standard method of analysis to confirm the amount of flow aid in shredded cheese. The objective of this research was to develop a total starch assay method to quantify the starch in shredded cheese blends to quantify the total amount of flow aid present. The Megazyme Total Starch HK kit K-TSHK 09/15, based on AOAC method 996.11, AACC method 76.13, and ICC standard method No. 168 was chosen as this kit does not contain glucose oxidase as a reagent. Glucose oxidase is present in many flow aids for shredded cheese to act as an oxygen scavenger. An initial extraction step was added to remove the d-glucose present in the flow aid. There was also an issue after a centrifugation step with breaking up the pellet. Glass beads were added to the test tubes to alleviate this problem. Finally, a gravity fed filtration step with grade 1 filter paper was added to remove interference from the food matrix not removed from the final centrifugation. The method was tested on 6 cheese samples consisting of 3% flow aid (wt/wt) that was hand blended. The flow aid itself was analyzed to determine the percent starch. It was determined that the flow aid contained 61.3% (±4.52%) starch. Analysis of cheese samples produced an average of 1.81% (±0.011%) starch. With analysis of flow aid resulting in 61.3%, the total calculated flow aid in cheese samples was 2.95% (±0.017), resulting in a percent relative error of 1.79%. The development of this method provides a valuable tool for the cheese industry and regulators. This method allows for manufacturers to accurately determine the amount of flow aid added to shredded cheese blends to ensure their manufacturing and regulatory specifications are being met. The total analysis time for this method is approximately 3 h. Ultimately, accurate determination of flow aid addition will improve product quality, safety, and consumer confidence for the shredded cheese industry.

Key Words: cheese, shredded, starch