Traditional and Emerging Technologies for Autochthonous Lactic Acid Bacteria Application

Abstract

Autochthonous strains of lactic acid bacteria, isolated from traditional cheeses, may be used as starter cultures in order to standardize the quality of traditional cheeses and/or as potentially beneficial bacteria, allowing the creation of new functional products. In addition to their good technological and biochemical properties, probiotic strains have to meet the criteria that include the Generally Recognized as Safe status, stability and activity/survival in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) conditions as well as the health effects tested in in vitro and in vivo conditions. Some lactobacilli isolated from traditional Serbian cheeses have shown great tolerance to low pH and high bile salts concentration indicating their potential probiotic ability. In order to preserve the desirable properties of probiotic bacteria, it is necessary to apply the appropriate techniques for their preparation and storage. Different encapsulation techniques such as extrusion, emulsion, drying and spray-coating technique are available in order to achieve better viability and target delivery to GIT. Autochthonous potential probiotic strains (Lactobacillus paracasei 08, Lactobacillus plantarum 564) survived well the spray-drying process indicating that this microencapsulation technique could be a cost-effective way in protection of these strains. Screening and incorporation of new autochthonous potentially probiotic strains in different cheeses provides an opportunity to improve the healthy status and quality of the final products with desirable properties, considering their positive influence on the flavor of cheeses, in particular, low-fat and low-salt cheeses, goat cheeses, etc.