Fate of Lactococcus lactis starter cultures during late ripening in cheese models

The presence of Lactococcus lactis, commonly employed as starter culture, was, recently, highlighted and investigated during late cheese ripening. Thus, the main goal of the present study was to assess the persistence and viability of this microorganism throughout manufacturing and ripening of model cheeses. Eight commercial starters, constituted of L. lactis subsp. lactis and L. lactis subsp. cremoris, were inoculated in pasteurized milk in order to manufacture miniature cheeses, ripened for six months. Samples were analysed at different steps (milk after inoculum, curd after cutting, curd after pressing and draining, cheese immediately after salting and cheese at 7, 15, 30, 60, 90, 120, 150 and 180 days of ripening) and submitted to both culture-dependent (traditional plating on M17) and -independent analysis (reverse transcription-quantitative PCR). On the basis of direct RNA analysis, L. lactis populations were detected in all miniature cheeses up to the sixth month of ripening, confirming the presence of viable cells during the whole ripening process, including late stages. Noteworthy, L. lactis was detected by RT-qPCR in cheese samples also when traditional plating failed to indicate its presence. This discrepancy could be explain with the fact that lactococci, during ripening process, enter in a stressed physiological state (viable not culturable, VNC), which might cause their inability to grow on synthetic medium despite their viability in cheese matrix. Preliminary results obtained by “resuscitation” assays corroborated this hypothesis and 2.5% glucose enrichment was effective to recover L. lactis cells in VNC state. The capability of L. lactis to persist in late ripening, and the presence of VNC cells which are known to shift their catabolism to peptides and amino acids consumption, suggests a possible technological role of this microorganism in cheese ripening with a possible impact on flavour formation.