Investigation of Food Safety, Storage Stability, Nutritional, Textural and Sensory Characteristics of Goat Milk Powder and Cheese Products During Extended Storage.

The proposed project has five major goals: (1) To assess food safety of two types of powdered goat milk (whole and skim) by examining the survival of E. coli O157:H7 in the low aw powdered goat milk stored at two temperatures (4oC and 25oC) during three storage periods (0, 3 and 6 months), (2) To evaluate storage stability of the powdered goat milk (control vs. E. coli inoculated) by determining water activity, pH, fatty acids and lipid oxidation for the three storage periods, (3) To develop iron (Fe) fortified goat milk cheeses, and compare basic nutrients, iron and fatty acid compositions between control and Fe fortified cheese groups, (4) To determine storage stability of the two cheese groups in water activity, lipid oxidation, lipolysis and proteolysis, and (5) To examine textural and sensory characteristics of the two goat cheese groups for the same storage treatments.