Production of brine-salted Mozzarella cheese with different ratios of NaCl/KCl

Mineral and moisture concentrations, proteolysis, bacterial counts and hardness were assessed in the centre and edge portions of unmelted and melted pizza cheeses, brine-salted with four mixtures of NaCl/KCl. Bacterial counts and proteolysis were not affected by brine solutions. Moisture and Ca were lower at the edge than in centre, whereas an opposite trend was observed for Na and K. This gradient between edge and centre was different for brine solutions with KCl. After 28 d, equilibrium between the edge and the centre was obtained for moisture only. The evolution of hardness between the edge and the centre of the unmelted cheeses could mainly be attributed to the lower moisture in the edge, whereas that of the melted cheeses could be attributed to the K concentration. Further investigation is needed to understand the role that K plays in regard to all functional properties of pizza cheese brine-salted with NaCl/KCl mixtures.