Bacterial and yeast microbial diversity of the ripened traditional middle east surk cheese

Abstract

Surk is a cheese produced by the addition of certain spices to the skim-milk cheese and it is known especially in the East Mediterranean region of Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, and the Middle East. Surk is also named as shanklish, shinklish, shankleesh, sorke, or sürke. In this study, the bacteria, and the yeasts in ripened surk cheeses obtained from the market were identified. 103 bacterial isolates and 40 yeast isolates were obtained from 27 surk samples. The LAB isolated from ripened surk cheese were Lactiplantibacillus plantarum, Companilactobacillus alimentarius, Ligilactobacillus acidipiscis. The non-LAB isolated from samples were Staphylococcus sciuri, Bacillus sp., Staphylococcus lentus, Bacillus pumilus, and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens. The yeasts identified were Debaryomyces hansenii, Candida zeylanoides, Yarrowia lipolytica, and Kluyveromyces lactis. The microbial diversity of surk shows that it may be a natural functional food. This is the first identification study about the bacterial and yeast diversity in ripened surk.