Antioxidant properties and textural characteristics of processed cheese spreads enriched with rutin or quercetin: The effect of processing conditions

•Processed cheese spread as a functional food.•Quercetin and rutin as functional ingredients.•Higher retention of quercetin than rutin.•Rutin more sensitive to melting temperature, quercetin to holding time.

Spreadable processed cheese (SPC) with addition of rutin or quercetin (0.5 g/100 g) were prepared at 80 °C and 90 °C for 1, 5 and 10 min. The effect of melting temperature and holding time of melting temperature on the quercetin/rutin retention, total phenolic content (TPC) and antioxidant capacity was studied. It was found that quercetin levels significantly decreased with the increase of holding time (P < 0.01) while rutin degradation was more affected by melting temperature (P < 0.01). An increase in TPC values and a decrease in antioxidant capacity measured by ABTS assay with the increase in melting temperature were observed in SPC with quercetin. The addition of rutin or quercetin significantly decreases the gel strength of the SPC samples.