Antifungal lactic acid bacteria combinations as biopreservation tool in cheese production

Spoilage is a major issue for the food industry, leading to important food waste and economic losses. Dairyproducts, despite their microbial stability, are susceptible to acid-tolerant fungal contaminants. In thiscontext, antifungal cultures are of growing interest as an alternative to chemical preservatives or as acomplement tool to hurdle technologies. To develop antifungal cultures for the biopreservation of dairyproducts, experiments were conducted in vitro and in situ. Firstly, an antifungal activity screening wasperformed in cheese-mimicking and yogurt models. Thirty two lactic and propionic acid bacterial strains werestudied alone and then in combination for 5 strains of interest. This allowed selecting two binarycombinations as potential antifungal cultures. The selected combinations were then tested as adjunctcultures in semi-hard cheeses produced at a pilot scale, to evaluate their antifungal activity and their impacton cheese organoleptic properties, and compared with a commercial antifungal culture. Challenge anddurability tests confirmed the antifungal activity of the 2 selected combinations. All the cheeses showedacceptable sensory properties, even if the ones with antifungal cultures, including the one with a commercialculture, were characterized by a more marked flavour compared to the control ones (p