Abstract: “The aim of this work is to study key functional parameters of the goat cheese protein hydrolysates. A Plackett-Burman Statistical Design, Response Surface Methodologies and Artificial Neural Network are applied to describe the effects of different factors (pH, Temperature, Time of hydrolysis, Amount of added buffer and Enzyme : Substrate ratio) on the following functional parameters of goat cheese proteins, which are hydrolysed by papain: Free Amine Nitrogen (NA), Total Soluble Nitrogen (NT), Solubility (PSI), Water Holding Capacity (WHC), Emulsifying Activity Index (EAI), Emulsifying Stability Index (ESI), Viscosity ( ), Held Water (HW), Surface Hydrophobicity (So), Foaming Capacity (FC) and Foam Stability (FS). According to our results, the release of soluble proteins from goat cheese to the supernatant (NT) and the hydrolysis degree of proteins into the supernatant (NA) increased until 443% and 273%, respectively. PSI, WHC, EAI, ESI and HW increased until 443%, 159%, 0.88%, 324% an”

Keywords: Goat Cheese, Protein Hydrolysis, Functional Properties, Plackett Burman Statistical Design, Response Surface Methodology, Artificial Neural Network.