The Influence of Commercial Starter Cultures on the Quality of Telemea Cheese

Abstract

The purpose of this scientific work was to study the influence that commercial starter cultures have on the quality of a traditional Romanian semi-hard cheese, namely Telemea. The starter cultures were thoroughly characterized prior to their application in the process, with particular attention to their impact on the food product both during and following processing. Different experimental types of cheese were obtained using two types of commercial starter cultures (MA11 and WHITE FLORA 1) in combination with a third commercial culture (MO536CRYO): MO536CRYO+MA11 and MO536CRYO+WHITE FLORA 1. The analysis focused on two factors that may influence cheese quality: the type of starter culture (mesophilic and thermophilic lactic acid bacteria) and the quantity of culture added to the milk. Starting from the same raw material, cow milk, and applying similar technological process, the cheeses inoculated with MO536CRYO+WHITE FLORA 1 exhibited superior physico-chemical, microbiological, and sensory characteristics compared to the other produced variants.