Selection of starter cultures for the production of white cow brine cheese

Abstract

Aiming at the most optimal starter cultures to be selected, a research was conducted to evaluate the effect of 5 different combinations of starter cultures on the dynamics of lactic acid fermentation during the production of white brine cow cheese. The raw milk used for the cheese production demonstrated certain deviations of the chemico-physical and microbiological properties most probably resulting from mastitis.

The progressive acidity development was in the first 20 days of cheese ripening for all variants and after 60 days it ranged from 92.8 - 104.7 ⁰SH. After the two-month aging period, the moisture percentage was 48.8 - 53.4%, the percentage of ripeness varying from 40 to 55 ⁰Š. In order to produce 1 kg of cheese, 6.57 - 6.94 l of milk were used, or 14.41 - 15.22 kilograms of cheese were produced from 100 l of milk.

The best sensory evaluation results were achieved with the variant using a combination of several starter cultures being as follows: DVS mesophilic culture (Str. lactis i Lb. casei - 2:1), FRC 75 (Lac. lactis subsp. lactis, Lac. lactis subsp. cremoris, Str. thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbruecki, subspecies bulgaricus) and developed thermophilic culture (Str. thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbruecki, subspecies bulgaricus - 2:1).