Statistics software version 26

Descriptive statistics were performed by use of SPSS Statistics software version 26.0. Statistical testing of categorical variables was performed making use of chi-square tests with statistical significance determined at p < 0.05.

SPSS IBM Statistics software version 26.0 (New York, NY, USA) was used for statistical analysis (SPSS INC., Chicago, IL, USA). Two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine the significant differences in headspace and physicochemical and colour parameters from the different packaging treatments over the study period using packaging treatment and storage time as fixed factors. Subsequently, the Tukey’s test was applied to pairwise comparisons between cheeses packaged under the different treatments and on each sampling day separately. Kruskal–Wallis H test was used to check for possible significant differences between storage condition and storage time, regarding instrumental texture and sensory parameters. A stepwise discriminant analysis was applied to physicochemical, instrumental colour, texture profile, and sensory parameters to classify cheese samples from the different packaging methods considering all MAP samples as a unique group. Statistical significance was declared at p ≤ 0.05.