Addressing Quality, Safety, and Sustainability Challenges in Artisanal Pico Cheese Production

Artisanal cheeses face unique challenges, due to changes in the present approaches to food safety, health, and environmental sustainability. This work aims at tackling such challenges in Pico cheese, by addressing outdated PDO criteria, the need to tackle coagulase-positive staphylococci (CoPS) and to promote circular economy by upgrading cheese whey. Model raw- and pasteurized milk cheeses were prepared with autochthonous lactic acid bacteria (LAB) as inoculants and analyzed for their composition, proteolysis, and microbiological parameters. CoPS were isolated and the risks they pose in terms of One Health evaluated by assessing phenotypic virulence factors and antibiotic resistance patterns. To assess the potential of autochthonous LAB for controlling CoPS, a challenge test was performed. Probiotic requeijão was prepared using autochthonous LAB as inoculants for upgrading whey. This work confirmed the need to update Pico cheese specifications regarding proteolysis indexes. Biofilm production was present in all Pico cheese CoPS, but resistance was only found against penicillin and cefoxitin. Adding salt or extending maturation time up to 60 days did not afford the desired level of CoPS control. Lactococcus lactis L1C21M1, however, was able to keep CoPS populations at 3 log cfu g-1 in the challenge test. Requeijão was a suitable substrate for probiotic autochthonous Lactococcus lactis L3A21M1 and L3B1M7.