Potentiality of the use of starter culture in PDO Strachitunt production on chemical-physical and microbiological features: A pilot study

In the present study, Strachitunt, an Italian PDO cheese (PDO), traditionally produced starting from raw milk without addition of starter culture (SC) was compared for chemical, physical and microbiological characteristics to an experimental cheese (EC), produced from the same raw milk but with the addition of commercial SC. EC resulted in significantly lower in bacterial counts during the whole period considered (115 days of ripening), for Enterobacteriaceae, Coliforms, Enterococci and Staphylococcus aureus. Strachitunt fatty acids profile was not influenced by the cheese and it was dominated by saturated fatty acid. Volatile compounds analysis revealed that PDO and EC presented the typical aroma of blue veined cheese, where ketones as 2-pentanone, 2-heptanone and 2-nonanone were the most abundant compounds. Considering sensorial analysis, significantly higher scores were obtained for EC if compared to PDO.