An official website of the United States government.
<ol>
<li>Evaluate the performance in feta cheese of three commercially available bio-protective bacterial cultures to inhibit a battery of yeast and mold spoilers.</li>
<li>Evaluate the performance in cottage cheese of three commercially available bio-protective bacterial cultures to inhibit a battery of yeast and mold spoilers.</li>
<li>Evaluate the performance in Queso fresco of three commercially available bio-protective bacterial cultures to inhibit a battery of yeast and mold spoilers.</li>
</ol>
<p>There is growing Interest in extending the shelf life of fermented dairy product shelf by incorporating adjunct lactic acid bacteria cultures as natural agents to inhibit the outgrowth of yeast and molds. There are several commercially available culture blends on the market, but there is little public data for cheese manufactures to gauge how these blends compare in different cheese applications, shelf-life improvement, breadth of inhibition, and impact of flavor. This project will evaluate three commercially bacterial cultures that are advertised to protect against yeast and mold spoilage. The results will provide benchmarks for cheese producers so they can gauge which cultures are most effective for their product type, and they level of inhibition they can reasonably expect. With this knowledge, cheese producers will be able to decide if investment into these cultures makes sense for their business.</p>