Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-2025

Abstract

Cheese ripening involves microbial changes, with starter lactic acid bacteria (SLAB) initiat- ing fermentation and nonstarter lactic acid bacteria (NSLAB) driving flavor and texture development. However, heat-resistant spores of Clostridium and Bacillus can survive pas- teurization and cause spoilage during ripening. This study evaluated NSLAB dynamics in the presence of spores during cheese ripening. Cheddar cheese samples at pilot-scale level (110 L) with four treatments, namely control, with spores of B. licheniformis (T1), with spores of Cl. tyrobutyricum (T2), and both spores (T3) at 2.0 Log10 CFU/mL, were ripened at 7 ◦C for six months. SLAB declined from 8.0 to 0.2 Log10 CFU/g, while NSLAB increased from 2.0 to 8.5 Log10 CFU/g by month three and maintained their counts up to six months, unaffected by spore presence. Spore counts were ≤1.45 Log10 CFU/g in controls but reached 2.94 ± 0.02 (T2) and 2.48 ± 0.03 (T3), correlating with spoilage signs after five months. MALDI-TOF identified L. rhamnosus (up to 37%) and L. paracasei (up to 25%) as dominant NSLAB across treatments. Physicochemical parameters were not significantly affected by higher spore levels. While NSLAB dominated, they were inadequate to prevent spoilage in spore-inoculated samples exceeding 2.0 logs during cheese ripening.

Publication Title

Applied Microbiology

Volume

5

Issue

65

DOI of Published Version

10.3390/applmicrobiol5030065

Publisher

MDPI

Rights

Copyright @ 2025 the authors

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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