The Impact of Different Inoculation Schemes on the Microbiota, Physicochemical and Sensory Characteristics of Greek Kopanisti Cheese throughout Production and Ripening.

Kopanisti is a Greek PDO cheese, which is traditionally produced by the addition of an amount of over-mature Kopanisti, called Mana Kopanisti, to initiate cheese ripening. The aim of this study was the production of four types of Kopanisti cheese (A-D) using pasteurized cow milk, and a combination of the following starters/adjuncts in order to test their ability to be used in Kopanisti cheese production: A: subsp. and , B: and /Mana Kopanisti, C: and / and , D: and . Throughout production and ripening, classical microbiological, metataxonomics and physicochemical analyses were employed, while the final products (Day 35) were subjected to sensory analysis as well. Most interestingly, beta-diversity analysis of the metataxonomics data revealed the clusters constructed among the Kopanisti types based on the different inoculation schemes. On day 35, Kopanisti A-C types clustered together due to their similar 16S microbiota, while Kopanisti D was highly differentiated. On the contrary, ITS data clustered Kopanisti B and C together, while Kopanisti A and D were grouped seperately. Finally, based on the sensory evaluation, Kopanisti C appeared to have the most suitable bacteria cocktail for the Kopanisti cheese production. Therefore, not only were the conventional starters used, but also the and strains could be used in a standardized Kopanisti cheese production that could lead to final products of high quality and safety.