It is said that
the biological cost of the resistances is not very high because resistant
bacteria increase fitness by compensating mutations (Sousa et al.,
2012). It has also been speculated that environmental conditions during
fermentation and/or ripening might contribute to the maintenance of
antibiotic resistance in food-borne bacteria (Rossi et al., 2014). However,
the present counts suggested that the wild-type, non-resistant
variants grow faster and reach higher cell densities under cheese
manufacturing conditions.