Antimicrobial properties of Lactic Acid Bacteria isolated from homemade cheese in North Macedonia

Abstract

Food safety is one of the major concerns in public health due to outbreaks of food-borne diseases. Consumers have become concerned about the safety of synthetic preservatives used in food. As a result, there is increasing demand for natural products that can serve as alternative food preservatives. In fermented foods, lactic acid bacteria with antimicrobial activity could be used as natural bio-preservatives to prevent or inhibit the growth of pathogenic and perishable bacteria and fungi. In the present study, a total of three LAB isolates were screened for the inhibitory effect using well diffusion agar method. The antifungal and antibacterial activities were investigated using two fungal and one bacterial test organisms. Results showed that two out of three LAB isolates demonstrated antifungal activity against Candida albicans ATCC 10231 and Aspergillus niger ATCC 16404, while only one isolate showed antibacterial activity against Salmonella enterica ATCC 10708. This study shows that LABs from homemade cheese possess considerable antimicrobial activity against tested microorganisms. This preliminary work provided a base and illustrated one of many possible applications of LABs as a probiotic candidate. The development of multistrain probiotic dairy products with improved characteristics, able to act as probiotics and to exert a protective action against infections, has gained increased interest.