Identification of Lactobacillus species isolated from traditional cheeses of west Azerbaijan

Identification of lactic acid bacteria of traditional cheeses is the first step of developing new starters in order to protect from national genetical resources and to product industrial cheese with desirable texture and organoleptic characteristics same as traditional cheeses. After traditional cheeses collection (24 samples of 8 different traditional cheeses from West Azerbaijan), identification of Lactobacillus species was performed using a specific culture (MRS broth). In present study, from a total of 118 isolates of lactobacilli were determined. Lactobacillus plantarum (24%), Lactobacillus casei (20%) and Lactobacillus agillis (18%) from facultative heterofermentative Lactobacilli and Lactobacillus delbrueckii (21%), Lactobacillus helveticus (14%) and Lactobacillus salvariu s (3%) from obligative homofermentative Lactobacilli were found to be more dominant species. So for achievement to organoleptic characteristics of traditional cheeses in industrial productions, mixed starters including dominant Lactobacillus species identified in cheeses can be employed.