Abstract:

A strain of non-starter lactic acid bacteria capable of accelerating cheese ripening were screened and isolated and its
effect on cheddar cheese slurry proteolysis during ripening was also explored. Rogosa agar medium was used for primary strain
isolation from Chinese northeastern traditional fermented food Suancai,, and the isolates obtained were screened further by
multivariate statistical analysis. Strain identification was conducted by 16S rDNA gene sequencing and Blast searches against the
public database. The results showed that a non-starter lactic acid bacterium was successfully isolated and named as S-1. The
strain was identified as Lactobacillus plantarum subsp. plantarum ST-III. Moreover, the strain displayed high aminopeptidase
activity and autolytic capacity although it had low acid-producing capacity. Furthermore, the strain revealed high proteolytic
capacity during cheese slurry ripening.

Key words: heese , ripening-accelerating effect, Suancai, non-starter lactic acid bacteria, screening, identification, proteolysis