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A previous study reported that Psychroflexus casei gave a “red smear” color to Raclette-type cheese ( Seiler et al., 2012). Our hypothesis is that, in conjunction with B. linens
and other bacteria, this bacterium could play a role in the orange-red
coloration of Herve cheese. Indeed, in the raw and pasteurized cheeses
studied here, B. linens were not the dominant bacteria in the
rind (0.5 and 1.6% of raw and pasteurized rind microbiota,
respectively), even though these bacteria had been inoculated during the
manufacturing process. This result is in agreement with previous
studies reporting that B. linens was not a significant member
of the surface microbiota of smear cheese, even though it is still used
as the major component of ripening cultures ( Brennan et al., 2002; Gori et al., 2013). It is also possible that other preponderant bacteria such as Psychrobacter and Staphylococcus play a role in the coloration of smear cheeses. As described previously ( Hoppe-Seyler et al., 2007), the yellow-orange color of the rind of these cheeses could be due to interactions between pigmented or nonpigmented B. linens and yellow-pigmented Arthrobacter ( Ogier et al., 2004; Leclercq-Perlat and Spinnler, 2010).
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