Gabriele Busettaa, Raimondo Gaglioa, Guido Mangioneb, Giuliana Garofaloa,, Elena Franciosic, Riccardo Gannuscioa, Margherita Caccamod, Massimo Todaroa, Rosalia Di Gerlandoa, Luca Settannia*, Giuseppe Licitra b,d
a Dipartimento Scienze Agrarie, Alimentari e Forestali, Università di Palermo, Viale delle Scienze 4, 90128 Palermo, Italy
b Dipartimento di Agricoltura, Alimentazione e Ambiente (Di3A), Università degli Studi di Catania, Via Valdisavoia 5, 95123 Catania, Italy
c Research and Innovation Centre, Fondazione Edmund Mach (FEM), Via E. Mach 1, 38098 San Michele all’Adige, Italy
d Consorzio per la Ricerca nel settore della Filiera Lattiero-Casearia e dell’agroalimentare (CoRFiLaC), 97100 Ragusa, Italy
*Corresponding author Luca Settanni.
E-mail address: luca.settanni@unipa.it
ABSTRACT
In this study, PDO Provola dei Nebrodi cheese was deeply characterized for its bacterial community and chemical
composition. Four dairy factories (A–D) were monitored from milk to ripened cheese. Wooden vat biofilms were
dominated by thermophilic rod LAB (4.6–6.5 log CFU/cm2). Bulk milk showed consistent levels of total mesophilic
microorganisms (TMM) (5.0–6.0 log CFU/mL) and, after curdling, a general increase was recorded. The
identification of the dominant LAB in wooden vat biofilms and ripened cheeses showed that the majority of
wooden vat LAB were lactococci and Streptococcus thermophilus, while cheese LAB mainly belonged to Lacticaseibacillus
paracasei and Enterococcus. Illumina sequencing identified 22 taxonomic groups; streptococci, lactococci,
lactobacilli and other LAB constituted the majority of the total relative abundance % of the wooden vat
(69.01–97.58 %) and cheese (81.57–99.87 %) bacterial communities. Regarding chemical composition, the effect
of dairy factories was significant only for protein content. Inside cheese color was lighter and yellower than
surface. Differences in fatty acids regarded only myristic acid and total amount of monounsaturated fatty acids.
The sensory evaluation indicated some differences among cheeses produced in the four dairies regarding color,
homogeneity of structure, overall intensity, salty, spicy, and hardness. The integrated approach applied in this
study showed that PDO Provola dei Nebrodi cheese characteristics are quite stable among the dairy factories
analyzed and this has to be unavoidably imputed to the application of the same cheese making protocol among
different dairies.
Keywords:
Antioxidant properties
Cheese chemistry
Illumina
Lactic acid bacteria
Stretched cheese
Wooden equipment
International Journal of Food Microbiology
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2023.110188
Gabriele Busetta
