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. 2025 Apr 24;14(9):1487.
doi: 10.3390/foods14091487.

Addressing Quality, Safety, and Sustainability Challenges in Artisanal Pico Cheese Production: Proteolysis Indexes, Staphylococci, and Whey Valorization

Sandra P A Câmara  1 , Cristiana Maduro Dias  1 , Hélder P B Nunes  1 , Raphael Martin  2 , Francisca Pimentel  1 , Júlia V Gomes  1 , Maria da Graça A Silveira  2   3 , Henrique J D Rosa  1   2 , Airidas Dapkevicius  1 , Alfredo E S Borba  1   2 , Maria de Lurdes N E Dapkevicius  1   2
Affiliations

Addressing Quality, Safety, and Sustainability Challenges in Artisanal Pico Cheese Production: Proteolysis Indexes, Staphylococci, and Whey Valorization

Sandra P A Câmara et al. Foods. .

Abstract

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 This work aims at tackling such challenges in Pico cheese, by addressing outdated PDO criteria, the need to tackle coagulase-positive staphylococci (CoPS) and to promote circular economy by upgrading cheese whey.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.

Keywords: artisanal cheese; circular economy; coagulase-positive Staphylococcus; proteolysis; safety; sustainability; whey cheese.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
pH (A), LAB (B), and CoPS (C) populations in curd and 21-day old experimental cheeses made from raw-milk. LAB—lactic acid bacteria; CoPS—coagulase-positive staphylococci. The bars represent average values (n = 2).
Figure 2
Figure 2
LAB populations in 21-day-old experimental cheeses made from raw (RM) and pasteurized (PM) milk with added L. lactis L3A21M1 (A), L3B1M7 (B), and/or L1C21M1 (C), at 1% or 2% (v/v), surface-contaminated with S. aureus ATCC 9144.
Figure 3
Figure 3
CoPS populations in 21-day old experimental cheeses made from raw (RM) and pasteurized (PM) milk with added L. lactis, L3A21M1 (A), L3B1M7 (B) and/or L1C21M1 (C), at 1% or 2% (v/v), surface-contaminated with S. aureus ATCC 9144.
Figure 4
Figure 4
LAB counts and pH decrease in requeijão prepared from the whey obtained during the manufacture of model Pico cheeses with or without adding three lactococcal strains (L1C21M1, L3A21M1, and L3B1M7). LAB—lactic acid bacteria. The bars represent average values (n = 2).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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