Advances and trends in starter cultures for dairy fermentations.

CARMINATI, D.; GIRAFFA, G.; QUIBERONI, A.; BINETTI, A. G.; SUÁREZ, V.; REINHEIMER, J. A.

Biotechnology of Lactic Acid Bacteria: Novel applications.

Wiley-Blackwell

Año: 2010; p. 177 - 192

Dairy starter cultures are actively growing cultures of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) to drive the fermentation process.At first, only artisanal starters were used. Though they are still used in certain cases, their microbiological instability promoted a evolution to more defined mixtures of LAB in order to obtain a more stable acidifying activity and quality of the products. However, artisanal starters are valuable sources of new strains for commercial uses. Today, defined, multi- or mono- strain cultures are extensively used around the world to produce cheeses, fermented milks and cream butter. They are commercialized as frozen and freeze-dried cell concentrates, and Direct Vat Inoculation (DVI) starters, to be used directly in the vats, are the last version of them. The phage sensitivity of lactic cultures is always a critical item when the starters are selected for industrial uses. So, a lot of strategies have been developed to minimize this problem, as the obtention of phage-insensitive mutants or the conjugal transfer of resistance plasmids. A lot of attention is receiving the starter adjuncts, used for purposes other than acid formation. They can be used as ripening or protective cultures, to improve the organoleptic characteristics of cheeses or perform a specific antimicrobial activity, respectively.