Muscle concentrations of organochlorinated compounds as well as biliary levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) metabolites were determined in red mullet Mullus barbatus as a sentinel species for assessing the pollution along the western Mediterranean coast. A battery of biochemical markers -biotransformation and antioxidant enzymes -were also measured in liver subcellular fractions to assess exposure to pollutants. Among them, 7-ethoxyresorufin O-deethylase (EROD) activity, as well as 7-penthoxyresorufin O-deethylase (PROD) activity and cytochrome P450 1A (CYP1A) content evidenced strong differences among sampling sites, and a good correlation with the amount of PCBs bioaccumulated by fish. No clear pollution-related response was observed for cytosolic glutathione S-transferase, whereas uridine-diphosphate UDP-glucuronyltransferase (UDPGT) was elevated in fish from polluted sites. Antioxidant enzymes -superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase and glutathione peroxidase (GPX) -were used to assess oxidative stress. Among them, catalase activity was well related to PCB body burden.

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Mesophyllic lactobacilli cultures propagated in MRS broth were inoculated in goats' milk curd slurries and incubated at 30d̀C for 10 d. The micro‐organisms tested were Lactobacillus casei subsp. casei IFPL 731 and IFPL 99, and Lactobacillus plantarum IFPL 3. Whole cells, cell‐free extracts and cell lysates were evaluated for acceleration of proteolysis in the curd slurries. Conversion of water‐soluble nitrogen to non‐protein nitrogen and amino acid nitrogen, reverse phase‐HPLC peak areas and ratio of hydrophobic to hydrophilic peptides, were all affected by the type of inoculum used as well as the strain under study. The results suggest that the accelerated‐ripening model system developed, containing cell lysates, may be suitable as a good and rapid indicator of the contribution of the strains to proteolysis during cheese ripening.