Suitability of selected autochthonous lactic acid bacteria cultures for Pecorino Sardo Dolce cheese manufacturing: influence on microbial composition, nutritional value and sensory attributes

Abstract

The use of an autochthonous starter culture made up by Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis, Lactobacillus plantarum and Lactobacillus casei in the production of experimental Pecorino Sardo Dolce PDO resulted in a high presence of presumptive mesophilic lactococci and lactobacilli, ~10 log colony‐forming units (cfu), and in significantly higher amount of total free amino acids and free fatty acids, 195.1 vs 178.9 and 328.6 vs 191.8 mg/100 g of experimental vs control cheese (made using a commercial starter) respectively. The experimental cheese also displayed better sensory properties such as taste and aftertaste.

Characterization of goat milk from Lebanese Baladi breed and his suitability for setting up a ripened cheese using a selected starter culture

“…Similar pH and acid lactic values in the first days were determined, at the same time in Tenerife goat cheese and in Pecorino cheese (Gonzales and Zarate, 2012; Mangia et al, 2013) whose technological process is similar to that applied by us (pasteurized milk, culture starter added, type of rennet, curd heating). This leads us to assume that pH and lactic acid values, as well as the lack of lactose are indicators of successful cheese acidification due to the lactic microbiota activity, found in high number at the same period.…”

“…Surprisingly, these values were much higher than those documented in other papers related to cheeses made from goat or sheep pasteurized milk (Atasoy et al, 2009;Mangia et al, 2013) and in Queso Ibores, a Spanish cheese manufactured with raw goat milk (Delgado et al, 2011a).…”

“…Pecorino cheese (Mangia et al, 2013) but in contrast to what determined in Ibores PDO cheese (Delgado et al, 2011) where butyric acid content resulted the highest. Linoleic acid (C18:2) content was consistent with those reported in several Spanish goat cheeses by Poveda and Capezas (2006).…”

“…Free fatty acids (FFAs) were extracted from cheeses and determined by gas chromatography according to the method of de Jong and Badings (1990) with some minor modifications reported by Mangia et al (2013).…”

“…lactis strains showed good growth and acidification activity whereas Lactobacillus casei subsp. casei strains showed a good proteolytic activity (Madrau et al, 2006;Mangia et al, 2013). Therefore, this study is aimed to produce ripened cheese from Baladi breed goat milk using a selected Streptococcus thermophilus SPS1, Lactococcus lactis subsp.…”