218. Starter cultures for cheese manufacture. Maintenance of acid-producing activity in cultures of lactic streptococci

Extract

Single-strain cultures of streptococci used as “starters” in Cheddar cheese manufacture in New Zealand frequently suffered failure due to the apparently spontaneous appearance of bacteriophage. The trouble was cured at the Institute experimental factory by increasing the inoculum used in the starter culture from about 0·2% to 1·0–1·6%. The culture then showed a regular activity in the cheese vat from day to day for long periods of time. Field trials during the past two years have indicated that single strain cultures can be maintained for long periods also in commercial factories if the correct technique is practised.

The theory is postulated that the effect of heavy inoculation in eliminating the spontaneous appearance of bacteriophage is due to the more rapid growth of the streptococci when they are transferred to each new batch of milk, i.e. to the shortening of the lag period. Bacteriophage tends to appear whenever the lag period is prolonged as a result of light inoculation, low incubation temperature, and aeration or ageing of the milk medium. Until more is known of the nature of phage it is not possible to suggest why a prolonged lag period in the initiation of growth should favour the appearance of phage.

Under commercial conditions failures of starters occur from time to time due to faulty technique which permits the entry into cultures of extraneous phage. The source of the contamination is most probably the whey from cheese vats, since it has been shown that phage commonly occurs in the whey even in vats where acid develops quite normally within the the cheese curd. A recent case of failure, which appears to be due to some milk abnormality, indicates that there are some milk supplies in which the heavy inoculation technique described in this paper is not completely effective in preventing the appearance of bacteriophage.