Adjunct cultures are used in cheesemaking to improve the sensory characteristics of the ripened cheeses. In addition, it is known that different adjunct cultures are capable of producing enzymes with the specificity to hydrolyze caseins, leading to the release of various bioactive compounds (bioactive peptides, amino acids, etc.). The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of adjunct heat-treated starter XT-312 and a cheese culture Lb. helveticus LH-B01 on the proteolytic activity and angiotensin converting enzymes inhibitors (ACE) in cheese models during ripening. Seven different cheese models were evaluated for: proteolytic activity using the spectrophotometric method with ortho-phthaldialdehyde (OPA), soluble nitrogen (SN), trichloroacetic acid-soluble nitrogen (TCA-SN) phosphotungstic acid-soluble nitrogen (PTA-SN), total nitrogen (TN), pH, contents of water, fat, as well as for total bacteria count (TBC), count of Lactococcus genus bacteria, count of Lb. helveticus, and number of non-starter lactic acid bacteria (NSLAB). Presence of adjunct bacterial cultures both in the form of a cheese culture LH-B01 and heat-treated XT-312 starter promoted primary and secondary proteolysis, which resulted in acceleration of the ripening process. ACE inhibitory activity and proteolytic activity was the highest throughout of ripening for cheese model with LH-B01 culture. The cheese models with the adjunct heat-treated starter were characterized by lower TBC, NSLAB and lower count of Lactococcus genus bacteria during ripening, compared to control cheeses.
Keywords: ACE inhibitory activity; Lb. helveticus LH-B01; cheese model; heat-treated starter; proteolysis; ripening.