A new Italian study shows why cheese made from milk from cows who feed from pastures in the summer is superior using a technique called “metagenomics”.
“With metagenomics, the entire milk microbiota composition can be identified and characterized. Alongside ecological studies of milk microbial communities, we can now gather new information on many microbial taxa involved in different compositional, technological, and nutritional properties of milk.”
In this research they studied the milk microbiota during their periods indoors and outdoors and the effect it had on the cheese.
The researchers found that the grassfed cattle at pasture had greater abundances of LAB and other probiotic bacteria (bifidobacteria and propionibacteria) and decreased abundances of spoilage bacteria, thereby improving the milk in terms of cheese making and human health.
The full paper is available to download here:
Giorgia Secchi, Nicolò Amalfitano, Ilaria Carafa, Elena Franciosi, Luigi Gallo, Stefano Schiavon, Enrico Sturaro, Franco Tagliapietra, Giovanni Bittante
Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animals and Environment (DAFNAE) University of Padova (Padua),Italy
Research and Innovation Centre, Edmund Mach Foundation, San Michele all’Adige, Italy
