Peppermint essential oil added to soft white cheese during storage
What it found
Adding small amounts of peppermint oil to soft cheese improved its taste and texture scores from a tasting panel.
The flavored cheese also showed more protein breakdown than plain cheese over one month in cold storage.
What they found
Studies in people
Taste and texture scores
A panel of 15 people rated the peppermint cheeses higher for flavor and texture than the plain cheese over four weeks. The look of the cheese was about the same across all batches.
Animal and lab studies
Oil composition in lab tests
Lab analysis found 15 volatile compounds in the peppermint oil. The largest share was menthol at 37.62%, followed by menthone at 20.98% and carvone at 11.76%.
Antioxidant activity in lab tests
In lab tests, the peppermint oil showed an antioxidant activity of 56.03%. Its total phenolic content measured 0.299 mg/ml.
Other findings
Protein breakdown in cheese
Cheeses with 60, 80 and 100 ppm of peppermint oil had more soluble nitrogen than plain cheese after a month of cold storage. This means the proteins broke down further when the oil was present.
Firmness of flavored cheese
The peppermint cheeses were harder, chewier and gummier than the plain cheese. The plain cheese was springier and held together better.
What the authors conclude
- They say adding peppermint oil to soft cheese raised certain chemical measures compared to plain cheese and may offer health benefits to consumers.
- They note that tasters preferred the flavored cheese and it kept well without defects for the whole storage period.
- They call for future studies to look into how peppermint oil works in the human body and to check for any minor side effects.
How it was done
The food industry wants to make products that consumers like. The authors aimed to create a new flavored cheese using a low amount of natural peppermint oil from Egyptian leaves.
Researchers made soft white cheese from buffalo milk, adding peppermint oil at 20, 40, 60, 80 or 100 ppm, plus a plain version. Fifteen staff members tasted the cheeses weekly for one month while they were kept at 5°C. They also measured the chemical makeup and firmness of each batch.
What it can’t tell you
- This work tested cheese properties and used a small staff panel for tasting, so it cannot show what health effects the cheese has on shoppers.
- Lab measurements of the oil do not prove what happens when people eat the cheese.
Who paid
- Authors work at
- National Research Centre, Egypt
The paper
- Title
- Natural peppermint-flavored cheese
- Type
- Study
- Evidence
- Studies in people · animals · lab
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Cite
- Ibrahim OAE, Mohamed AG, Bahgaat WK (2019). Natural peppermint-flavored cheese. Acta scientiarum polonorum. Technologia alimentaria. doi:10.17306/J.AFS.0607Free full textPubMed 30927754DOI
Summary written 30 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error