Journal of Food Engineering 139 (2014) 1012

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Journal of Food Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jfoodeng

Research Note

Textural and sensory properties of a calcium-induced milk gel

Rahela Siamand a, Hilton C. Deeth b,, Jasim M.S. Al-Saadi c
a

Food Science Department, College of Agriculture, Salahaddin University, Erbil, Iraq

School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld 4072, Australia
c
Food Science Department, Technical College of Agriculture, Halabja, Sulimmania, Iraq
b

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 11 January 2014
Received in revised form 6 April 2014
Accepted 21 April 2014
Available online 30 April 2014
Keywords:
Milk gel
Calcium
Texture
Sensory

a b s t r a c t
The textural and sensory properties of a calcium-induced milk gel prepared by heating skim milk with 7
20 mM added calcium chloride were investigated. Gel strength and water holding capacity of the gel
increased and syneresis decreased during storage at 7 C for 28 days at all calcium concentrations. Sensory studies showed that the gels were acceptable at added calcium concentrations of 713.5 mM; at
higher concentrations, the sensory scores were lower. Adding sugar and avours did not affect formation
of the gels but increased their sensory scores.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Gelation of milk proteins is an important process in dairy manufacture. It occurs when proteinprotein interactions lead to the
formation of a three-dimensional network capable of entraining
water molecules. Several different types of protein gels are produced from milk and milk components. Acid gels are the most
important due to their formation in yogurt and related products
(Lucey and Singh, 1998). Whey proteins form heat-set gels when
heated at temperatures >70 C (Mulvihill and Kinsella, 1987) while
gels involving both whey proteins and caseins can form during
storage of UHT-sterilised milk (Datta and Deeth, 2001).
The heat stability of skim milk with calcium chloride added up
to 20 mM has been explored by several authors: by determining
the pHheat coagulation time prole (Sievanen et al., 2008); by
measuring the precipitate obtained by centrifugation (On-Nom
et al., 2012); and by diffusing wave spectroscopy (McKinnon
et al. 2009). Recently it was shown that heating milk with 7
20 mM added calcium chloride results in formation of a gel similar
to that of yogurt but with a pH close to that of milk
(Ramasubramanian et al., 2014). The rheological properties of such
gels have been reported (Ramasubramanian et al., 2014). This

paper reports the textural and sensory properties of these calcium-induced milk gels.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Milk samples
Raw cow milk was collected from local Iraqi farmers and separated to produce skim milk.
2.2. Preparation of calcium-induced milk gel
Skim milk samples (100 mL) were heated at 85 C for 20 min,
cooled to 22 C and 7, 10, 13.5, 17 or 20 mM calcium chloride
added. The fortied milk was heated to 85 C and left undisturbed
for 20 min to produce a gel. The gels were stored at 7 C for up to
28 d.
Flavoured gels were made by the same procedure except that
sugar and avouring were added after pre-heating the skim milk
at 85 C for 20 min and before cooling and adding the calcium
chloride. Sugar concentrations used were 2.5%, 5% and 7.5%, while
avouring was added according to the manufacturers recommendations. All trials were carried out in triplicate.
2.3. Gel strength

Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 7 38708251; fax: +61 7 33651177.

E-mail address: h.deeth@uq.edu.au (H.C. Deeth).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2014.04.014
0260-8774/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The gel strength was determined with a TA Texture Analyser at

20 2 C. The instrument parameters were: cylindrical probe;

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R. Siamand et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 139 (2014) 1012

penetration speed, 1.0 mm/s; penetration distance, 10 mm. Gel

strength was measured in triplicate.
2.4. Water holding capacity (WHC)
WHC was determined by compressing cylindrical samples
(19 mm diam, 5 mm long) between two parallel plates using a
2 kg weight. Samples were placed between two lter papers
(Whatman No. 1) and compressed for 30 s. The difference in sample weight before and after compression was used to calculate percent WHC (Hamm, 1960).
2.5. Syneresis
Syneresis was determined by the method of Harwalkar and
Kalab (1983). A gel sample (25 g) was placed in a centrifuge tube
and centrifuged at 1400 g for 15 min at 5 C. Syneresis was determined as the volume of whey expelled from the gel.
2.6. Viscosity
Apparent viscosity of gels was measured with a Brookeld rotational viscometer (Model DV PR, Austria), tted with a No. 3 spindle, at 50 rpm and 25 C.
2.7. Sensory evaluation
The samples were served in small cups and evaluated by eight
trained panelists. The samples were evaluated for avour, body,
texture, bitterness and appearance/colour on a 100-point hedonic
scale according to the following points allocation: avour 40, body
15, texture 15, bitterness 20, and appearance/colour 10. Average
scores from the eight panelists are reported.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Gel strength of calcium-induced milk gels
Gel strength (Pa) increased signicantly with the amount of calcium added and time of storage (Fig. 1A). This increase is related to

3.3. Sensory characteristics of calcium-induced milk gels

In a preliminary study, added calcium chloride concentrations
of 550 mM were used. Concentrations <7 mM did not result a
gel-like texture and concentrations >20 mM gave a distinct bitter
taste. Bitterness was not detected in gels containing 720 mM
added calcium.
Sensory studies showed that the gels produced at added calcium concentrations in the range 713.5 mM were acceptable; at
higher calcium concentrations, the sensory scores declined
(Fig. 1D). During storage for 28 d, the total scores of the gels prepared with 7, 10 and 13.5 mM calcium chloride increased while
the total scores for the gels prepared with 17 and 20 mM calcium
chloride decreased. The highest sensory score, 91.5 out of 100, for
the gel with 13.5 mM added calcium stored for 28 d, indicates high
acceptance for this product. Among the components of the sensory
evaluation scores, avour and bitterness were the most important
(results not shown). Scores for these improved gradually during
storage of the gels prepared using 7, 10 and 13.5 mM calcium chloride, while the scores for the gels prepared with 17 and 20 mM calcium chloride decreased.
Although the gels were prepared from skim milk, many panelists described them as creamy. Thus it may be possible to use this
method to produce low-fat dairy products with similar textures to
the corresponding higher-fat products. A similar result was

Syneresis (ml)

1500
1000
500

B
A

15
10
5
0

0
1

7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28
Storage me (days)

7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28
Storage me (days)

7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28
Storage me (days)

Sensory evaluaon scores

(100 point)

Gel strength (Pa)

Syneresis decreased and water holding capacity increased with

increased calcium concentration and time of storage (Fig. 1B and
C). This is due to calcium enhancing aggregation of the milk proteins and reducing the pore size of the protein network, thus
reducing separation of whey from the gel (Lucey et al., 1998a,
1998b). The results are consistent with the gel strength results.

2000

Water holding capacity (%)

3.2. Syneresis and water holding capacity of calcium-induced milk gels

20

2500

21
19
17
15
13
11
9
7
5

the increase in the number and strength of cross-linking of the

milk proteins by calcium ions (Lee and Marshall, 1984). Calcium
was not added at levels higher than 20 mM as these cause the
gel strength to increase so much that coagulation occurs with
expulsion of whey (Ramasubramanian et al., 2012).

100
80
60
40
20

0
1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28
Storage me (days)

Fig. 1. Gel strength (Pa) (A), syneresis (ml) (B), water holding capacity (%) (C) and total sensory scores (D) of calcium-induced milk gels during storage at 7 C for 28 d. ()
7 mM, (h) 10 mM, (D) 13.5 mM, () 17 mM and (s) 20 mM added calcium. Errror bars represent standard errors.

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R. Siamand et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 139 (2014) 1012

Table 1
Textural properties of avoured and sweetened calcium-induced milk gels manufactured using 13.5 mM calcium.
Flavour

Sugar (%)

Viscosity (cp)

Syneresis (ml)

Water holding capacity (%)

b

Gel strength (Pa)

Chocolate

2.5
5
7.5

24.7
29.2c
32.5a

17.5
18.7c
19.5b

7
6.2cd
5.5de

900bc
700d
600e

Orange

2.5
5
7.5

23.9f
28.6d
31.7b

17.8e
18.3d
20.2a

6.8bc
5.9d
5.1e

800cd
700d
500e

Banana

2.5
5
7.5

23.3g
28.4d
32.8a

15.8i
16.2h
17.1g

8.5a
7.4b
7.2b

1100a
1000ab
900bc

Table 2
Sensory evaluation scores of avoured and sweetened calcium-induced milk gels manufactured using 13.5 mM calcium chloride.
Flavour

Sugar (%)

Flavour(40)
c

Body (15)
a

Texture (15)
e

Bitterness (20)
e

Appearance/colour(10)
ab

Total (100)

Chocolate

2.5
5
7.5

33.6
36.1abc
37.9a

14.2
13.2a
13.5a

12.2
13.5bcd
13.6bcd

16
17.6bc
19a

9.5
9.6ab
9.9a

85.6f
90 g
93.9h

Orange

2.5
5
7.5

35bc
36.9ab
37.2ab

13.9a
13.7a
13.6a

13.3cd
13.9abc
14.5a

16.5de
17.8bc
19.2a

8.6bc
9.2abc
9.5ab

87.2f
91.5g
94h

Banana

2.5
5
7.5

36.2abc
37.2ab
38.3a

14.8a
14.6a
13.4a

13.2cd
13.3cd
14.2ab

16.2e
17.4cd
18.7ab

8.3c
9abc
9.2abc

88.7g
91.6g
93.8h

Values in columns with the same superscript letter are not signicantly different (p > 0.5).

obtained by Faergemand et al. (1999) with protein cross-linking in

yogurt produced by transglutaminase treatment.
3.4. Textural and sensory properties of avoured and sweetened
calcium-induced milk gels
Because gels made with 13.5 mM added calcium gave the best
sensory score, this level was used to prepare avoured sweetened
gels. The added sugar and avourings did not adversely affect the
manufacture of the gels.
The viscosities of the avoured gels increased with the level of
sugar added (Table 1) which is attributable to the increased total
solids (Robinson and Tamime, 1986). Syneresis increased and
water holding capacity decreased with increasing sugar level
which is consistent with the decrease in gel strength with increasing sugar addition (Table 1). Sugar decreases the gel strength
because it limits the water availability for casein micelle hydration
which is necessary for formation of a strong gel (Boye et al., 1997).
Overall, the avoured gels had very high acceptability, higher
than the unavoured gels (Table 2). With increasing sugar content,
the sensory scores for avour, texture, bitterness and appearance/
colour increased for all gels. However, there was a slight decrease
in the scores for body as the sugar content increased. This is consistent with the nding that the gel strength decreased with
increased sucrose content.
4. Conclusion
Milk gels were produced from skim milk using heat treatment
and calcium chloride addition (720 mM). Gel strength, water
holding capacity and syneresis improved with increasing calcium
concentration and time of storage. However, the highest sensory
score was achieved for gels made with 13.5 mM added calcium
chloride. Flavoured and sweetened gels produced with 13.5 mM

added calcium chloride received high sensory scores suggesting

such gels may be an attractive new product for the dairy industry.
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