RESUMO
BACKGROUND: The Polish market for tvarog (curd cheese)-based products is growing continuously. The as- sortment of these goods include products with different textures, different additives and different flavours. In developing a successful food product one should ensure consumers are sufficiently involved during the development stages. Consumer-led food product development should be a standard procedure. The study aimed to develop a new variants of aerated tvarog spreads. METHODS: The research was divided into the following steps: evaluation of consumer pref- erences (questionnaire); production of aerated tvarog cheeses (different flavor variants); physico-chemical evaluation of new products (composition, TPA test); evaluation of new products by consumers (questionnaire with a 5-point scale); sensory evaluation of new products by an expert panel (2 types of questionnaire). RESULTS: Sweet tvarog spreads were characterized by a higher degree of aeration than cheeses with a savory flavor. The savory variants had a semi-liquid consistency after aeration. This could result from the addition of salt (6%) to flavor preparation. The products stabilized by gelatine showed a higher degree of aeration than the ones with starch. The savory cheeses showed lower hardness than sweet cheeses (P < 0.05). Both consum- ers and experts gave higher marks to the sweet variants of manufactured tvarog cheeses. CONCLUSIONS: The addition of salt to savory flavor preparation probably affected the texture of these products, which was semi-liquid. Texture plays a very important role in the development of new products and affects consumers’ preferences for the product.