Characterization of Fiore Sardo cheese manufactured with the addition of autochthonous cultures

Abstract

This work evaluated the effect of adjunct autochthonous cultures on the chemical, microbiological and sensory characteristics of Fiore Sardo cheese during ripening. A total of twelve batches of cheeses were manufactured according to the technical Disciplinary of Fiore Sardo cheese, with and without different combinations of autochthonous strains isolated from the native microflora of artisanal Fiore Sardo. There were no significant differences in the cheese compositional parameters between experimental and control cheeses, but the addition of cultures led to a statistically significant decrease in pH values in experimental cheeses. The evolution of total mesophilic bacteria, total coliforms and lactic acid bacteria were significantly influenced by the addition of autochthonous cultures in most of the experimental cheeses. As for sensory characteristics, all the experimental cheeses reported significantly higher scores especially for shape, texture, interior openings, taste and aftertaste. This study demonstrated the beneficial effect of the addition of selected autochthonous cultures in accelerating the disappearance of undesirable flora and improving the typical sensory characteristics of the cheese, and confirmed the importance of ewes' milk as a source of technologically interesting strains that could be used to ensure a higher quality of artisanal cheese productions.

Traditional and innovative production methods of Fiore Sardo cheese: a comparison of microflora with a PCR‐culture technique

“…2000), were not detected in raw milk using PCR‐CT (Figure 4a). These results are in agreement with those reported in previous studies on Sarda breed sheep’s raw milk (Pisano et al. 2007).…”

“…After 1 month of ripening they were still present in large amounts reaching 8 log cfu/g (Figure 4c). In comparison with previous studies carried out on Fiore Sardo using conventional microbiological methods (Pisano et al. 2006, 2007; Mangia et al.…”

Oaxaca cheese: Manufacture process and physicochemical characteristics

“…The salt content is the component with the widest variation (Figure 6), as salting is not homogeneous as it is sprinkled. In this respect, Pisano et al. (2007) and Sahan et al.…”

Survey of the microbiological quality of the raw cow milk in the Tadla area of Morocco

“…According to these authors, the refrigeration temperature of 4°C might be an effective measure to control the micro‐organisms. Future investigations should investigate extensively these types of bacteria in order to determine if raw milk produced in the Tadla area may contain autochthonous LAB, as they can improve the sensory characteristics of traditional cheeses (Pisano et al . 2007).…”