DEVELOPING NOVEL MEANS TO IMPROVE THE MICROBIAL QUALITY OF DAIRY FOOD

Microbial damages caused by bacteria in the dairy industry are a fundamental threat to safety and quality of milk products. Many bacteria in industrial settings tend to form structured multicellular communities known as biofilms on contact surfaces as well as within the milk products themselves. Individual cells in biofilms are deeply embedded and protected by a self-produced extracellular matrix (EM) that consists mainly of polysaccharides and proteins which form a physical barrier. We investigate the protective role of the EM in bacterial survival during a processing of dairy products. Our results show that EM has a major role in bacterial survival during the milk processing. Noticeably, the mutant strains which cannot produce EM during growing in milk show hypersensitivity to milk processing procedures such as heat pasteurization. Consequently, we develop novel strategies to mitigate biofilm formation via blocking EM production, which may provide novel means to improve dairy products microbial quality.