Abstract
Fungi are common contaminants of dairy products, which provide a favorable niche for their growth. They are responsible for visible or non-visible defects, such as off-odor and -flavor, and lead to significant food waste and losses as well as important economic losses. Control of fungal spoilage is a major concern for industrials and scientists that are looking for efficient solutions to prevent and/or limit fungal spoilage in dairy products. Several traditional methods also called traditional hurdle technologies are implemented and combined to prevent and control such contaminations. Prevention methods include good manufacturing and hygiene practices, air filtration, and decontamination systems, while control methods include inactivation treatments, temperature control, and modified atmosphere packaging. However, despite technology advances in existing preservation methods, fungal spoilage is still an issue for dairy manufacturers and in recent years, new (bio) preservation technologies are being developed such as the use of bioprotective cultures. This review summarizes our current knowledge on the diversity of spoilage fungi in dairy products and the traditional and (potentially) new hurdle technologies to control their occurrence in dairy foods.
Highlights
Since people began producing and storing food products, spoilage and food losses and waste became important issues for human with regards to food safety and security
It is worth mentioning that several fungal species such as Debaryomyces hansenii, Candida catenulata, Galactomyces geotrichum, Kluyveromyces marxianus, Mucor lanceolatus, Penicillium roqueforti, Penicillium camemberti, or Saccharomyces cerevisiae are deliberately added as technological adjunct cultures to manufacture dairy products including kefir-type products and many kinds of cheese varieties [6,7,8]
Control of fungal spoilage is a major concern for industrials and scientists that are looking for efficient solutions to prevent and/or limit fungal growth or development in dairy products
Summary
Since people began producing and storing food products, spoilage and food losses and waste became important issues for human with regards to food safety and security. A significant number of fungal species are able to survive and grow in dairy products This astonishing adaptation capacity may be explained by the ability of fungi to utilize numerous substrates including carbohydrates, organic acids, proteins, and lipids that are present in milk and its derived products [5]. It is worth mentioning that several fungal species such as Debaryomyces hansenii, Candida catenulata, Galactomyces geotrichum, Kluyveromyces marxianus, Mucor lanceolatus, Penicillium roqueforti, Penicillium camemberti, or Saccharomyces cerevisiae are deliberately added as technological adjunct cultures to manufacture dairy products including kefir-type products and many kinds of cheese varieties [6,7,8] Concerning undesirable species, their presence in dairy products may result in several types of food spoilage, e.g., visible growth of the fungus at the product surface, and the production of metabolites causing off-odors and flavors, as well as visible changes in color and/or texture [9]. This review summarizes our current knowledge on spoilage fungi in dairy products with a special emphasis on their diversity, as well as the traditional and (potentially) new hurdle technologies to control their occurrence in dairy products
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