A Comparison of Available Methods for Determining Salt Levels in Cheese

Comparative salt analyses were run on seven different types of cheese using each of four methods: Mohr, Volhard, ion selective electrode, and chloride analyzer. The results of Volhard, Mohr, and chloride analyzer methods were similar for unaged cheese varieties, i.e., Mozzarella, Cheddar, Ricotta, Romano, and Provolone, but concentrations detected with the ion selective electrode were lower than the other three methods. Results were similar with aged Cheddar and process cheeses except the Mohr procedure proved unreliable. A constant correction factor could be used to make the ion selective electrode results similar to that obtained with the Volhard procedure.