Protective culture: Is it a solution to improve the quality of culture‐free white cheese?

Abstract

The biggest problem faced by cheese producers is the textural and microbiological quality of culture-free white cheese types, known as shepherd’s cheese or cottage cheese among local people and produced widely throughout Turkey with high heat treatment. In the present study, commercial protective cultures containing two different subspecies of Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Lactobacillus plantarum were added separately to pasteurized milk. Physicochemical, textural, and microbiological properties were analyzed during the processing of cheese and 2 months of ripening. The results showed that L. plantarum was effective on yeast (1.29 log10 cfu/g reduction) and Staphylococcus aureus growth (1.61 log10 cfu/g reduction) and L. rhamnosus (one of the commercial cultures) was effective on coliform bacteria (1.70 log10 cfu/g reduction) compared with the control. Also, the Enterobacteriaceae count was lower than in other protective cultures that used cheese. Overall, the use of L. rhamnosus can be recommended for culture-free white cheese production in this study. Novelty impact statement Protective culture could be a novel approach to inhibit undesirable flora for white brined cheese. In this study, Danisco Holdbac LC culture limited the growth of Enterobacteriaceae and coliform bacteria. Moreover, the addition of Danisco Holdbac LC allowed the textural properties of this type of cheese to be preserved until the end of the ripening period.