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Background and Objective: Biscuits are the most common bakery product after bread in Iran and have a long shelf-life. The technological properties of Iranian wheats used to produce biscuits have not been investigated so far. The objective of this study was to investigate the physico-chemical properties of 20 Iranian wheat flours and the sensory properties of biscuits produced from them. Materials and Methods: Twenty Iranian wheat cultivars released by the Seed and Plant Improvement Institute (SPII), Karaj, Iran were studied. The wheat grains were milled using the Quadrumate Senior Mill. The physicochemical characteristics of the resulting flours were determined according to AACC (2000) methods. Biscuits were then baked from each flour and their organoleptic characteristics determined by trained panelists. Results: The physical and chemical characteristics of the wheat flours differed significantly due to differences in genetic make-up and environmental factors. Sensory evaluation showed no significant differences between the colors and tastes of the biscuits. However, significant differences were found among them with regard to texture, shape and surface and overall acceptability. Further analysis of the data showed that the sensory characteristics of the biscuits were statistically negatively correlated with their protein and gluten contents, gluten index, and SDS sedimentation. Conclusion: Biscuits produced from Golestan, Moghan, Prishtaz, and Omid wheat cultivars had the highest quality and acceptability. The Moghan cultivar was found to give the highest yield of flour, so it is the most suitable cultivar for biscuit production. Keywords: Wheat Flour, Physico-chemical properties, Biscuit, Sensory evaluation

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Background and objective: Imitation cheeses are cheese-like products produced by blending individual ingredients, such as fat, protein, water and edible acids, with a mixture of emulsifying salts. The main protein sources in dairy-based imitation cheeses are rennet casein or sodium and calcium caseinates. Rennet casein is usually preferred to the other protein sources due to its functional properties and desirable flavor. However, in the present study sodium caseinate was employed as the protein source because of its higher availability and lower price in Iran. Also, whey protein concentrate (WPC) and enzyme-modified Lighvan cheese (EMC) were used to improve functional and sensory characteristics of the immitation cheese produced. Materials and methods: Imitation cheeses were formulated with three levels of WPC (0, 1.5 and 3%) and of EMC (0, 2.5 and 5%). Meltability and color parameters were assessed using the image processing technique. Other textural specifications, including hardness, adhesiveness, cohesiveness and springiness, were measured using a texture analyzer. Chemical analyses and sensory evaluation were done using the comon methods and the 5-point hedonic scale, respectively. Results: The data showed that all the textural specifications were influenced by WPC and EMC (p<0.05). In addition, based on the results of chemical analyses, increases in both variables affected significantly the protein and ash contents, as well as the pH of all the immitation cheese samples (p<0.05) however, no significant difference was observed as regards fat, salt and moisture contents. Also, the effect of both variables on the color parameters were found to be statistically significant (p<0.05). Finally, no statistical difference was observed between the overall acceptability of samples containing 2.5% or 5% EMC as judged by the sensory evaluation panel members. Conclusions: On the whole, results of the present study indicate that the physico-chemical and sensory characteristics of immitation cheese can be changed significantly by whey protein concentrate and enzyme-modified Lighvan cheese, the magnitudes of changes being a function of the amounts used. Keywords: Enzyme-modified Lighvan Cheese, Immitation Cheese, Physico-chemical Properties, Sensory Properties, Whey Protein Concentrate