Impact of pre-drying on the textural, chemical, color, and sensory properties of explosive puffing dried white cheese snacks

The effects of microwave drying (MD), freeze-drying (FD), and microwave+freeze-drying (MD+FD) as predrying treatments prior to explosion puffing drying (EPD) on the physical, chemical, and sensory qualities of reduced-fat white cheese (RFWC) snacks were studied. Compared with RFWC snacks produced by MD+EPD and FD+EPD, MD+FD+EPD gave acceptable crispy texture snacks having lower mean pore diameter, lower bulk density, better sensory properties, and more uniform color. In terms of chemical properties, MD+FD+EPD was successful for obtaining RFWC snacks with lower salt content and higher protein content than FD+EPD. RFWC snacks pre-dried up to 60 g/100 g moisture content by MD at 180 W and then pre-dried up to 45 g/100 g moisture content by FD at 20 Pa pressure prior to EPD were the most acceptable product in terms of physical, chemical, textural, and sensory properties.