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In cheesemaking, to increase the intensity of the flavour of cheese, it is becoming increasingly common to inoculate pasteurized milk with selected lactic acid bacteria (LAB) isolated from good quality raw milk. These selected LAB constitute starter culture (they initiate acidification, an essential step during the manufacture of essentially all cheese varieties) and adjunct culture (they play a key role in ripening). Health-promoting probiotic bacteria are included in some starter cultures to provide an additional functionality to the cheese, whose organoleptic characteristics must satisfy the requirements of consumers. In this work, we identified the isolated LAB by phenotypic and genetic tools; studied of technological properties, enzymatic activities, antimicrobial and bacteriocin activity of isolated LAB; design of indigenous starter and adjunct cultures and used them to manufacture semihard goat cheeses; determined the chemical and microbiological composition during ripening; evaluated the cheese healthy benefits by determining the conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) content and atherogenicity index and obtained the sensorial profile at the end of ripening (60 days).

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Taboada Natalia Verónica, degree in Biotechnology and Doctor of food science and technology. Researcher in the area of food microbiology and biotechnology in Department of Food Sience at University of Santiago del Estero, Argentine. Currently working on meat quality.

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