Mycobiota Composition of Robiola di Roccaverano Cheese along the Production Chain

• Main Authors: Federica Biolcati, Ilario Ferrocino, Maria Teresa Bottero, Alessandra Dalmasso
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-08-01
• Series: Foods
• Subjects: robiola di roccaverano; goat’s milk cheese; mycobiota; high throughput sequencing
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/10/8/1859

Robiola di Roccaverano is a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) cheese from the Piedmont region of Italy. In this study, the mycobiota occurring during Robiola di Roccaverano production was elucidated. Samples of milk, Natural Milk Cultures (NMC), curd, 5- and 15-days ripened cheese were collected from one dairy plant and the mycobiota was analyzed by the metataxonomic approach. Milk samples showed a high diversity and <i>Cladosporium</i>, <i>Kluyveromyces marxianus</i>, <i>Geotrichum candidum</i> and <i>Debaryomyces hansenii</i> were found with higher relative abundance. This mycobiota remains quite stable in NMC and curd matrices although the relative abundance of <i>K. marxianus</i> and <i>G. candidum</i> yeasts increased significantly and shaped the fungal composition of 5- and 15-day ripened cheese.