Cheese making is an ancient practice to preserve perishable food such as milk for a long time. The first phase of cheese making involves the addition of rennet of animal origin, which contains the enzymes necessary for the hydrolysis and coagulation of milk caseins, and for cheese ripening (mainly lipase/esterase).
The proposed technology concerns the production of cheeses using rennet from vegetables sources, i.e. replacing the enzymes involved in milk caseins coagulation and cheeses ripening, with enzymes of vegetable origin. In this way, vegetarian cheeses are obtained. Various vegetables have been selected and tested for this purpose, in particular: cardoon, artichoke, papaya, pineapple, mushrooms and fig milky sap. In all cases, cheeses were obtained, and as observed by the analysis of some profiles of volatile substances released, they showed interesting characteristics.
Finally, for another vegetable, hibiscus flowers, it has been possible to obtain both a cheese starting from cow's and soy milk , i.e. a vegan cheese.
The innovation of the proposed technology is cheeses production without using animal rennet but plant enzymes, moreover the bioactive compounds present in the plant extracts are also found in the final cheese, obtaining a product with high added value.
The advantages of this type of technology can be summarized as follows: a) reduction in the cost of rennet, since animal rennet has reached considerable costs, between 200 and 500 €/kg, while vegetable rennet is available at prices between 1 and 5 €/kg; b) development of new products with different characteristics from those present on the market, for instance medium and long chain free fatty acids (FFAs) differ among the “vegetable cheeses” and control cheese, giving a range of aromas and flavors different from each other; c) they can represent a reference on the market for vegetarian and vegan consumers, or for people who have intolerances towards animal derivatives and for ethical and/or religious reasons.
Currently there are few cases of artisanal cheese making with thistle, so there is no reference market or competitors and this could represent a huge competitive advantage.