The objective of this work was to study the influence of the natural cheese maturity and cooling rate of the processed cheese mixture after packaging on texture and rheological properties of the high-fat processed cheese. Increasing the content of the mature cheese raw material decreased the complex modulus, yield stress and hardness of the processed cheese, but not the taste of the processed cheese. The rapid cooling of the molten mix decreased the complex modulus and improved the spreadability, but also increased the stickiness. Differences in ripening index of the cheese blend or the cooling rate did not affect viscoelastic behaviour of the processed cheeses. Linear viscoelasticity region was in the range 0-200 Pa. Influence of the rapid cooling on the texture and rheological properties was more significant than influence of maturity of the raw material. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.