The effect of addition of skimmed milk on the characteristics of Myzithra cheeses

•Possibility of production of a new dietary Myzithra cheese with reduced fat.•Electrophoresis and RP-HPLC of cheese proteins revealed the added milk to whey.•SDS–PAGE of whey cheese proteins with special preparation permits their separation.

Myzithra cheese is a traditional Greek whey cheese. Three types of Myzithra cheese were produced from A: 100% whey; B: 90% whey + 10% ovine milk and C: 90% whey + 10% skimmed ovine milk and were evaluated. The addition of skimmed milk to whey resulted in a new dietary product, containing 9.24% fat, with good quality, a harder texture and higher levels of ash, Ca, Mg and K than those of experimental cheeses A and B. Electrophoretic patterns and HPLC chromatograms of the proteins of Myzithra cheeses revealed the presence or not of αs-CN to the whey cheeses. In addition, SDS–electrophoresis of proteins under special preparation of samples permitted for first time the separation of whey-cheese protein (WP) components that had been denatured during cooking of the whey.