Microbial composition of Gouda cheese processing chain

Gouda cheeses of different production batches and ripening times often differ in metabolite composition, which may be due to the starter culture mixture applied or the growth of non-starter lactic acid bacteria (NSLAB) upon maturation. Therefore, a single Gouda cheese production batch was systematically investigated from the thermized milk to the mature cheeses, ripened for up to 100 weeks. Therefore, microbial colony enumeration, high-throughput full-length 16S rRNA gene sequencing, and a metabolomic approach were combined to unravel the bacterial community, substrate consumption, and metabolite production dynamics.