An approach to improve the baking properties and determine the onset of browning in fat-free mozzarella cheese.

Compared with low-moisture part-skim mozzarella and mozzarella cheese, bake performance of low-fat and fat-free mozzarella on pizza has a lot to desire. We hypothesized that a water-soaking pretreatment step of low-fat and fat-free cheese shreds before baking would improve pizza baking performance. The study also examined the correlation of the onset of cheese browning with the rate of moisture loss, changes in cheese surface temperature, and 3-dimensional (3D) plot L* a* b* CIELAB color analysis. The pretreatment of soaking cheese shreds in water improved the baking properties of fat-free mozzarella cheese on pizza. Compared with the control sample, which demonstrated significant shred identity, poor shred melt, fusion, and stretch during a pizza bake with fat-free mozzarella, the soaked cheese (SC) sample demonstrated satisfactory cheese melt, fusion, and stretch. In addition, the SC sample had desired browning as opposed to the control sample's excessive browning. The additional moisture from the soaking pretreatment aided in delaying the onset of cheese browning in the SC sample when compared with the control sample. For both the control and SC samples, there was a strong correlation between the onset of cheese browning with the peak of moisture-loss rate, and an increase in cheese surface temperature (>100°C). The color analysis of the 3D plot confirmed the relationship between the onset of cheese browning and the shift in L* (lightness), a* (red-green color), and b* (blue-yellow) values. According to the study's findings, soaking cheese shreds before baking can help improve bake performance on pizza. Furthermore, 3 measurement tools used in the study, (1) moisture-loss rate, (2) cheese surface temperature, and (3) 3D plot CIELAB color, were useful in determining the onset of cheese browning and can be applied to different intervention strategies to control cheese browning during pizza baking.