Mozzarella is one of the most popular unripened Apulian cheeses. Knowledge about microbial composition and variability of artisanal mozzarella and its production chain is increasingly growing. In this study, microbial communities from natural whey starters to end products from four renowned Apulian artisanal dairy factories have been explored by means of 16S metagenomics. The chemical properties of mozzarella samples were also detected and analyzed. Lactobacillus is the core acidifying component of the used starters, while some psychrophilic or contaminants bacteria appear in site-specific products. Biodiversity was found to be quite similar between the whey and mozzarella sample pools, while a significant variability among production sites (factories) has been detected. Furthermore, mozzarella microbial diversity seems to be in positive correlation with its lactic acid content. Targeted metagenomics would then be a powerful and relatively quick technique to characterize the microbiological variability of traditional milk-based foods.
