Technology to Produce Ragusano Cheese: A Survey

Licitra, G.; Portelli, G.; Campo, P.; Longombardo, G.; Farina, Giovanni; Carpino, S.; Barbano, D.M.

doi:10.3168/jds.s0022-0302(98)75900-4

Cited by 36 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…The full process has been previously described (16). The following are the main critical points of interest of the present study.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The lag period before acidification can be up to 5 h, depending on the raw milk and the specific tina, highlighting the complexity of this natural inoculation system. Ragusano cheese ("protected denomination of origin" since 1996) is a brine-salted pasta filata raw-milk cheese that is aged for 6 to 12 months and is produced on farms in eastern Sicily (16). No starters are added in the cheese-making process, and lactic acid is produced by natural milk flora and desirable flora from the surface of the traditional wooden cheese vats (tinas); the respective contributions of these two bacterial sources, the raw milk and the tina biofilm, are still not completely elucidated.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Variability of Bacterial Biofilms of the “Tina” Wood Vats Used in the Ragusano Cheese-Making Process

Licitra

Ogier²,

Parayre³

et al. 2007

Appl Environ Microbiol

106

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Ragusano cheese is a "protected denomination of origin" cheese made in the Hyblean region of Sicily from raw milk using traditional wooden tools, without starter. To explore the Ragusano bacterial ecosystem, molecular fingerprinting was conducted at different times during the ripening and biofilms from the wooden vats called "tinas" were investigated. Raw milks collected at two farm sites, one on the mountain and one at sea level, were processed to produce Ragusano cheese. Raw milk, curd before and after cooking, curd at stretching time (cheese 0 time), and cheese samples (4 and 7 months) were analyzed by PCR-temporal temperature gel electrophoresis (PCR-TTGE) and by classical enumeration microbiology. With the use of universal primers, PCR-TTGE revealed many differences between the raw milk profiles, but also notable common bands identified as Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactobacillus lactis, Lactobacillus delbrueckii, and Enterococcus faecium. After the stretching, TTGE profiles revealed three to five dominant species only through the entire process of ripening. In the biofilms of the two tinas used, one to five species were detected, S. thermophilus being predominant in both. Biofilms from five other tinas were also analyzed by PCR-TTGE, PCR-denaturating gradient gel electrophoresis, specific PCR tests, and sequencing, confirming the predominance of lactic acid bacteria (S. thermophilus, L. lactis, and L. delbrueckii subsp. lactis) and the presence of a few high-GC-content species, like coryneform bacteria. The spontaneous acidification of raw milks before and after contact with the five tinas was followed in two independent experiments. The lag period before acidification can be up to 5 h, depending on the raw milk and the specific tina, highlighting the complexity of this natural inoculation system. Ragusano cheese ("protected denomination of origin" since 1996) is a brine-salted pasta filata raw-milk cheese that is aged for 6 to 12 months and is produced on farms in eastern Sicily (16). No starters are added in the cheese-making process, and lactic acid is produced by natural milk flora and desirable flora from the surface of the traditional wooden cheese vats (tinas); the respective contributions of these two bacterial sources, the raw milk and the tina biofilm, are still not completely elucidated. Preliminary studies were performed on the Ragusano cheese bacterial ecosystem during the ripening by traditional microbiology after plating and by random amplified polymorphic DNA analysis of isolated clones (7). Forty different populations were identified, which can be predominant at different times of the ripening, among them Lactococcus lactis, Enterococcus sp., Streptococcus thermophilus, Streptococcus macedonicus, and various mesophilic lactobacilli. With both approaches, stretching was found to induce a strong modification of the bacterial profile. The presence of L. lactis, S. thermophilus, and Streptococcus waius was detected (6) in the wooden tina vat. However, considering the limits of traditional mic...

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“…The full process has been previously described (16). The following are the main critical points of interest of the present study.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Variability of Bacterial Biofilms of the “Tina” Wood Vats Used in the Ragusano Cheese-Making Process

Licitra

Ogier²,

Parayre³

et al. 2007

Appl Environ Microbiol

106

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“…Briefly, the manufacturing process involves coagulation of raw milk by adding lamb or goat rennet paste; the curd is subsequently cooked twice and then incubated to allow lactic development by the adventitious microbiota. The curd is again heated to about 49°C, stretched into a block, and salted in brine, and may be ripened for up to a year (21). The resulting cheese, which belongs to the pasta filata or stretched curd group, is semihard, with a dense texture and a mild and pleasant flavor (3).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Diversity, Dynamics, and Activity of Bacterial Communities during Production of an Artisanal Sicilian Cheese as Evaluated by 16S rRNA Analysis

Randazzo

Torriani

Akkermans

et al. 2002

Appl Environ Microbiol

332

228

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The diversity and dynamics of the microbial communities during the manufacturing of Ragusano cheese, an artisanal cheese produced in Sicily (Italy), were investigated by a combination of classical and cultureindependent approaches. The latter included PCR, reverse transcriptase-PCR (RT-PCR), and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) of 16S rRNA genes (rDNA). Bacterial and Lactobacillus group-specific primers were used to amplify the V6 to V8 and V1 to V3 regions of the 16S rRNA gene, respectively. DGGE profiles from samples taken during cheese production indicated dramatic shifts in the microbial community structure. Cloning and sequencing of rDNA amplicons revealed that mesophilic lactic acid bacteria (LAB), including species of Leuconostoc, Lactococcus lactis, and Macrococcus caseolyticus were dominant in the raw milk, while Streptococcus thermophilus prevailed during lactic fermentation. Other thermophilic LAB, especially Lactobacillus delbrueckii and Lactobacillus fermentum, also flourished during ripening. Comparison of the rRNA-derived patterns obtained by RT-PCR to the rDNA DGGE patterns indicated a substantially different degree of metabolic activity for the microbial groups detected. Identification of cultivated LAB isolates by phenotypic characterization and 16S rDNA analysis indicated a variety of species, reflecting to a large extent the results obtained from the 16S rDNA clone libraries, with the significant exception of the Lactobacillus delbrueckii species, which dominated in the ripening cheese but was not detected by cultivation. The present molecular approaches combined with culture can effectively describe the complex ecosystem of natural fermented dairy products, giving useful information for starter culture design and preservation of artisanal fermented food technology.

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“…At the end of brine salting, cheeses are aged in a ventilated room at 14 to 16°C with a relative humidity of about 80 to 90%. The cheese produced by using this traditional manufacturing is typically consumed as a table cheese from about 3 to 9 months of age (14). At the first months of ripening, Ragusano is characterized by a pleasant sweet and lightly spicy taste that becomes increasingly spicy as aging is prolonged.…”

Section: Traditional Technologymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Microfloras and Sensory Profiles of Selected Protected Designation of Origin Italian Cheeses

Licitra

Carpino²

2014

Microbiol Spectr

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Approximately 39 Italian cheeses carry protected designation of origin (PDO) status. These cheeses differ in their manufacturing technology and the microbial flora which comprise the finished products. The evolution of lactic microflora in cheeses with PDO status is of particular interest because the biochemical activities of these organisms participate in cheesemaking and may play an acknowledged role in the development of organoleptic characteristics during ripening. Nonstarter lactic acid bacteria (NSLAB) constitute complex microbial associations that are characterized by the occurrence of various species and many biotypes as a result of a number of selective conditions persisting during the manufacturing process and different ecological niches. The evolution of different species during ripening of Fiore Sardo showed that, when present, Lactobacillus paracasei persists and dominates the microflora of the cheese in the last period of ripening, suggesting that this species, more resistant to the constraints of the mature cheese, could be involved in proteolysis and in other enzymatic processes occurring during cheese ripening. In contrast, the stretching step typical of pasta filata cheese, such as Ragusano, induced a simplification of the raw milk profiles, allowing the persistence only of some predominant species, such as Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. lactis, Lactococcus lactis, and Streptococcus macedonicus, after the stretching step. Lactobacillus plantarum and L. paracasei were isolated from ripened Castelmagno PDO cheese samples with the highest frequencies. These species, generally absent in the milk, occur in dairy ecosystems and dominate the bacterial flora of many ripened semihard cheeses. In PDO long-ripened Italian cheese such as Parmigiano Reggiano, the NSLAB population is mainly formed by L. paracasei, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, and Pediococcus acidilactici. Lactobacillus helveticus, L. delbrueckii subsp. lactis, and L. delbrueckii subsp.bulgaricus were also detected. Continued insight into the microbial populations of traditional Italian cheeses will allow continued production of characteristic, high-quality cheeses which have been enjoyed for many centuries.

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Technology to Produce Ragusano Cheese: A Survey

Cited by 36 publications

References 2 publications

Variability of Bacterial Biofilms of the “Tina” Wood Vats Used in the Ragusano Cheese-Making Process

Variability of Bacterial Biofilms of the “Tina” Wood Vats Used in the Ragusano Cheese-Making Process

Diversity, Dynamics, and Activity of Bacterial Communities during Production of an Artisanal Sicilian Cheese as Evaluated by 16S rRNA Analysis

The Microfloras and Sensory Profiles of Selected Protected Designation of Origin Italian Cheeses

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