Ripening was then carried out for 28 days. Temperature was 12°C from VX-765 Day 8. During that stage,

pH slowly increased from 4.35 (at the beginning of ripening), to 4.7 (Day 15), to 5.5 (Day 21), to more than 6 (Day 28). Forty-four raw milk cheeses at 4 different steps (176 samples) were analyzed at the following production steps: raw milk (Step A, Day 0), after addition of rennet (Step B, Day 0), after removal from the mold (Step C, Day 2) and during ripening (Step D, Day 21). Loiret’s plant (Table 6) Table 6 pH and temperature at the different production steps in Les Courtenay (Brie) Production steps pH Temperature Milk at the factory (A’) 6.7 – 6.90 <6°C After the 1 st maturation (cold) 6.65 - 6.75 10 to 12 °C selleck After the 2 nd maturation (hot) (B’) 6.30 – 6.50 34 to 36°C After curdling 6.25 – 6.35 34 to 36°C After removal from the mould (C’) 4.70 – 5.00 20 to 22°C After salting (side 2) 4.70 – 5.00 17 to 20°C Ripening (Day 28) (D’) 5.00 – 5.60 6 to

10°C Ripening (Day 45) 6.50 – 7.00 6 to 10°C In the second plant under study from Loiret area in France (Brie cheese), milk was collected on farm and stored at a temperature below 6°C to allow decantation and standardization of the cream. After two different maturation steps: cold (10 to 12°C, 16 to 24 h) and hot (34 to 36°C, 15 to 40 h), rennet was added, a manual molding was performed and followed by two turnovers (10 h and 14 h after molding). The starter was also added just after the cold maturation. Then, cheeses were removed from the molds and salted on each side. Several hours later, after mold inoculation of cheeses, drying was performed for

2 to 6 days. Finally, ripening had been allowed for a period of about 3 weeks. Thirty SSR128129E raw milk cheeses were analyzed at four different production steps (120 samples): raw milk (Step A’, Day 0), after the second maturation (Step B’, between Day 1 and Day 3), after removal from the mold (Step C’, Day 3) and during ripening (Step D’, Day 28). – Enrichment step The enrichment medium was Brain Heart Infusion (BHI, 37 g l-1, Bio-Rad, Marnes-la-Coquette, France), supplemented with several components (propionic acid, 5 ml l-1; Fe-citrate, 0.5 g l-1; cystein chlorhydrate, 0.5 g l-1; yeast extract, 5 g l-1; agar, 2 g l-1) and mupirocin (Lithium mupirocin, GlaxoSmithKline, England) as the selective agent at a final concentration of 80 mg l-1 [23]. One ml of milk or 1 g of raw milk cheese was transferred into a tube of enrichment medium and 1 ml of each of the ten fold appropriate sample dilutions in quarter-strength Ringer solution containing cystein chlorhydrate (0.3 g l-1) was also inoculated in tubes of enrichment medium in order to detect JQEZ5 concentration bifidobacteria in milk and raw milk cheese until the 10-6 dilution. Estimated mean counts of bifidobacteria were obtained using the last positive dilution.