to exert their functional properties, probiotics need
to be delivered to the desired sites in an active and viable form.
Similar results were found in Minas fresh cheese by Buriti, da
Rocha, Assis, and Saad (2005): viable counts of Lactobacillus paracasei,
a probiotic strain, increased during storage of 21 days.
In the cheese 1 and cheese 2 samples, significant interactions
(P < 0.05) were found between pH and the time of evaluation
(Table 5). The pH values of cheese without and with LAB isolates
decreased linearly over time, by 0.0362 and 0.042 pH units per day,
respectively. On day 5, a difference in pH was found between the
cheese 1 and cheese 2 samples. The pH values of cheese 2 started to
decrease only after the 15th day. During this time, the population of
E. coli decreased from 5.380 to 3.380 log CFU/g and LAB population
increased. The organic acids produced by LAB contributed to the
decline of the pathogen because they are sensitive to low pH. In
general, the pH of goat milk derivative is higher than that of cow
milk. Goat milk presents a more pronounced alkalinity and buffering
capacity than cow milk, which is mainly related to the associated
casein and phosphate systems (