Viability of probiotic microorganisms in cheese during production and storage: A review

Abstract

Cheese is a dairy product which has a good potential for delivery of probiotic microorganisms into the human intestine due to its specific chemical and physical characteristics compared to fermented milks (higher pH value and lower titrable acidity, higher buffering capacity, greater fat content, higher nutrient availability, lower oxygen content, and denser matrix of the texture). In addition, a large variety of cheese types all over the world, consumption of cheese by everybody in their long-term diet, as well as the nutritional value of cheese have resulted in regular market growth for probiotic cheeses. To be considered to offer probiotic health benefits, probiotics must remain viable in food products above a threshold level (e.g., 10 6 cfu g -1) until the time of consumption, without adversely altering sensory attributes. Therefore, incorporation of probiotic cells into different cheese matrices and studying the influences of different compositional and process factors affecting the viability of probiotics in this product as well as its sensory properties have been the subject of numerous studies. Factor influencing the stability of probiotics in cheese can be categorized into three areas including formulation factors (strains of probiotic bacteria and microbial interactions, pH and titrable acidity, hydrogen peroxide, molecular oxygen, growth promoters and food additives, salt, microencapsulation, and ripening factors), process factors (incubation temperature, heat treatment, types of inoculation, and storage temperature), and packaging materials and systems. This article reviews the viability of probiotic organisms in cheese as well as the main factors influencing their stability during processing and storage. © INRA and Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011.