Replacement of fat with highland barley β-glucan in zein-based cheese: Structural, rheological, and textual properties

Nowadays, few plant-based cheese provides satisfactory viscoelastic property like conventional cheese, promoting the application of zein. Our study prepared zein-based cheese containing different concentrations (0-30 %) of highland barley β-glucan (HBG) as a fat replacer. Increased HBG caused smaller and more uniform oil droplets in zein network. SAXS pattern implied Rg decreased from 0.936 nm to 0.567 nm with increased HBG concentration. The stretchability of Cheddar and Violife cheese was 23.69 cm and 6.72 cm, respectively, while that of zein-based cheese added with HBG was 7.76-16.47 cm. The melting behavior of zein-based cheese did not fully mimic Cheddar cheese, but those of HBG5 and HBG10 were more comparable than Violife cheese. Violife cheese lacked hardness and gumminess compared to Cheddar cheese, while more similarities in textural properties were observed between Cheddar and zein-based cheese added with 10 % HBG. Our results provide opportunities in creating meltable low-fat plant-based cheese.