Lactic Acid Bacteria in Cheddar Cheese Made with Sodium Chloride, Potassium Chloride or Mixtures of the Two Salts

Three different split lots of Cheddar cheese curd were prepared with added sodium chloride (NaCl) potassium chloride (KCl) or mixtures of NaCl/KCl (2:1 1:1 1:2 and 3:4 all on wt/wt basis) to achieve a final salt concentration of 1.5 or 1.75%. At intervals during ripening at 3±1°C samples were plated with All-Purpose Tween (APT) and Lactobacillus Selection (LBS) agar. Isolates were obtained of bacteria that predominated on the agar media. In the first trial ( Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis plus L. lactis subsp. cremoris served as starter cultures) L. lactis subsp. lactis Lactobacillus casei and other lactobacilli were the predominant bacteria regardless of the salting treatment Received by the cheese. In the second trial ( L. lactis subsp. lactis served as the starter culture) unclassified lactococci L. lactis subsp. lactis unclassified lactobacilli and L. casei predominated regardless of the salting treatment given the cheese. In the third trial ( L. lactis subsp. cremoris served as the starter culture) unclassified lactococci unclassified lactobacilli L. casei and Pediococcus cerevisiae predominated regardless of the salting treatment applied to the cheese Thus use of KCl to replace some of the NaCl for salting cheese had no detectable effect on the kinds of lactic acid bacteria that developed in ripening Cheddar cheese.