Application of indigenous strains of lactic acid bacteria for semi‐industrial production of autochthonous Montenegrin Njeguši cheese

Most of the traditional dairy products of south‐eastern Europe are produced from unpasteurised milk without addition of selected starter cultures. These artisanal products have an interesting biodiversity of indigenous microbiota. In Montenegro, one of the most popular traditional cheeses is Njegu?i cheese, belonging to the group of hard cheeses. Most of the cheeses are produced from ewes' milk, but cows' milk is also widely used. In Montenegro, there are no existing legal regulations defining the specificities of the production or the raw material used for the production of autochthonous food products. Therefore, the producers make the decision about what type of milk to use for cheese production. One of the priorities of the food producers in Montenegro is to obtain a larger scale, standardised production of traditional food products, which are of good quality and considered safe for the consumers. Therefore, in this study, indigenous strains of lactic acid bacteria isolated from various Montenegrin artisanal dairy products were tested as starter cultures for the production of Njegu?i cheese. Three isolates were selected and used as starter cultures in pilot plant experiments for the production of Njegu?i cheese. When applying an adequate combination of added bacterial strains as starters, the flavour of Njegu?i cheese, produced under pilot plant conditions, was comparable to that of the artisanal origin.