Use of dry ice as innovative technology to preserve the chemical and microbial characteristics of burrata cheese

Burrata cheese demand is sharply increasing on international market, but its shelf life is very short being limited to a few days due to its high perishability. A possible way to improve preservation is to promptly lower the temperature during the manufacturing process. This study aimed to obtain an immediate drop of the temperature of the product using a cryogenic agent (dry ice) during the filling phase in two different ways: by a dosing funnel (DI) or by direct addition of a flake of dry ice inside the product (INS). The chemical results showed that this technique tended to slow down the alteration processes: INS had lower content of lactic and acetic acid content, as for VOC content; lipolysis was also delayed since the free fatty acid content was less abundant in the experimental samples; the microbial counts showed better microbiological characteristic of experimental samples, in particular, Pseudomonas population; under the sensory point of view INS had better characteristics after 21 days. Novelty impact statement In this study, we used dry ice as cryogenic agent to immediate drop the temperature during burrata manufacturing, aiming to improve the product preservation. Study results revealed that this technique was able to delay the decaying process. On the chemical point of view, the arise of microbial-derived metabolites was slowed down, as for the Pseudomonas growth, finally the sensory characteristics of the experimental samples was better than control.