Characterisation of yeast flora isolated from an artisanal Portuguese ewe's cheese

www.elsevier.nl/locate/ijfoodmicroThe evolution of the yeast flora was studied for an artisanal semi-hard ewes’ cheese made from raw milk. Mean log10 22 yeast counts per gram of cheese body ranged from 2.7 to 6.4, with the higher counts observed after a ripening period of 30 23 days. The yeast population decreased thereafter and, at the end of curing process, reached values similar to those of the 24 beginning. A total of 344 yeasts strains were randomly isolated from the curd and cheese body during the 60 days long 25 ripening period. Esterase activity was common to almost all isolates (98%) while proteolysis was observed in 12% of the 26 total yeast population. The proportion of strains with positive glucose fermentation increased from 21% in the curd to 75% at 27 the end of the ripening period. A total of 150 isolates representative of the physiological characteristics tested were examined 28 with the API ID 32C system showing different degrees of quality of identification. Only 15% of the strains (23 isolates) were 29 excellently identified being assigned to the species Candida zeylanoides. The most frequent species appeared to be 30 Debaryomyces hansenii (anamorph Candida famata) and Candida intermedia. These two species amounted to 9% of the 31 yeasts in the curd increasing to 86% at the end of the ripening period