Microbiota of an unpasteurised cellar-stored goat cheese from northern Sweden

Abstract

This qualitative study reports on lactic acid bacteria (LAB), yeasts and moulds isolated from three artisanal Swedish cellar-stored goat cheeses aged for 1, 3 and 5 months. Starter culture LAB dominated in the younger cheeses, and Leuconostoc pseudomesenteroides, common in raw goats’ milk, had persisted from the unpasteurised milk into all the cheeses. Non-starter LAB dominated in the 5 month cheese, in particular, Lactobacillus sakei, a meat-associated LAB not previously isolated from cheese. Debaryomyces hansenii, and Penicillium and Mucor species were dominant among the yeasts and moulds, respectively. The cheese rind was not formed primarily from Penicillium species as in traditional cheeses such as Camembert – rather, mycelium from Mucor mucedo contributed to rind formation. Mould species known to produce sterigmatocystin, aflatoxins or ochratoxin A in cheese were not isolated in this study; growth of mycotoxigenic Aspergilli may have been inhibited by the cool conditions in the earth-cellar (4–6 °C).