engleski

Viability of novel microencapsulated indigenous cultures ofLactiplantibacillus plantarum and Lactococcus lactis in Pag cheese pilot production – preliminary results

Within the project “The Potential of Microencapsulation in Cheese Production”, the aim of this study was to characterize the isolates of lactic acid bacteria from the traditional cheese production chain and to select the potentially most suitable starter culture for application in microencapsulated form with rennet in the production of Pag cheese. Based on the established biochemical properties, the Lactiplantibacillus plantarum strain from the lamb abomasum and Lactococcus lactis strain from sheep milk were selected for microencapsulation in two different formulations: separately (S2) and together with rennet (S3). Both formulations with non-encapsulated commercial starter cultures (S1) as control were used in the traditional production of Pag cheese and therefore six cheeses were produced from each formulation (N=18). Cheese samples were collected and microbiologically analysed every 30 days during 120 days of ripening. To gain insight into the microbial population and the proportion of bacterial species, morphologically distinct colonies were selected in each analysis and identified using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrophotometry. The average number of bacteria at day 120 was 6.78±0.02 (S1), 6.49±0.27 (S2), and 6.82±0.28 (S3) log10 CFU/g with uniform variations during the ripening process. While the Lb. plantarum strain was isolated at each sampling stage (5-70 %), the proportion of Lc. lactis strain decreased at day 30 and was not isolated later. Although additional molecular analysis should be performed to confirm authenticity with the original strains, this result suggests that the microencapsulated form of started cultures and rennet may become a new standard in cheese production while maintaining the traditional values of the product.

cheese production ; innovations ; lactic acid bacteria ; microencapsulation

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