Starter cultures have great significance in the food industry due to their vital role in the manufacture, flavour, and texture development of fermented foods. Once mainly used in the dairy industry, nowadays starter cultures are applied across a variety of food products, including meat, sourdough, vegetables, wine and fish. New data on the potential health benefits of these organisms has led to additional interest in starter bacteria. Starter Cultures in Food Production details the most recent insights into starter cultures. Opening with a brief description of the current selection protocols and industrial production of starter cultures, the book then focuses on the innovative research aspects of starter cultures in food production. Case studies for the selection of new starter cultures for different food products (sourdough and cereal based foods, table olives and vegetables, dairy and meat products, fish and wine) are presented before chapters devoted to the role of lactic acid bacteria in alkaline fermentations and ethnic fermented foods. This book will provide food producers, researchers and students with a tentative answer to the emerging issues of how to use starter cultures and how microorganisms could play a significant role in the complex process of food innovation.

Starter cultures have great significance in the food industry due to their vital role in the manufacture, flavour, and texture development of fermented foods. Once mainly used in the dairy industry, nowadays starter cultures are applied across a variety of food products, including meat, sourdough, vegetables, wine and fish. New data on the potential health benefits of these organisms has led to additional interest in starter bacteria.Starter Cultures in Food Production details the most recent insights into starter cultures. Opening with a brief description of the current selection protocols and industrial production of starter cultures, the book then focuses on the innovative research aspects of starter cultures in food production. Case studies for the selection of new starter cultures for different food products (sourdough and cereal based foods, table olives and vegetables, dairy and meat products, fish and wine) are presented before chapters devoted to the role of lactic acid bacteria in alkaline fermentations and ethnic fermented foods.This book will provide food producers, researchers and students with a tentative answer to the emerging issues of how to use starter cultures and how microorganisms could play a significant role in the complex process of food innovation.

List of contributors viiPreface xi1 Lactic acid bacteria as starter cultures 1Clelia Altieri, Emanuela Ciuffreda, Barbara Di Maggio and Milena Sinigaglia2 Yeasts as starter cultures 16Pietro Buzzini, Simone Di Mauro and Benedetta Turchetti3 Fungal starters: An insight into the factors affecting the germination of conidia 50Philippe Dantigny and Antonio Bevilacqua4 Non-starter bacteria 'functional' cultures 64Patricia Ruas-Madiedo and Ana Rodríguez5 Industrial production of starter cultures 79Sanna Taskila6 Safety evaluation of starter cultures 101Pasquale Russo, Giuseppe Spano and Vittorio Capozzi7 Management of waste from the food industry: A new focus on the concept of starter cultures 129Daniela Campaniello, Salvatore Augello, Fabio de Stefano, Stefano Pignatiello and Maria Rosaria Corbo8 A new frontier for starter cultures: Attenuation and modulation of metabolic and technological performance 148Antonio Bevilacqua, Barbara Speranza, Mariangela Gallo and Maria Rosaria Corbo9 The role of the pangenome concept in selecting new starter cultures 162Antonio Bevilacqua, Francesca Fuccio, Maria Clara Iorio, Martina Loi and Milena Sinigaglia10 Commercial starters or autochtonous strains? That is the question 174Maria Rosaria Corbo, Angela Racioppo, Noemi Monacis and Barbara Speranza11 Sourdough and cereal-based foods: Traditional and innovative products 199Luca Settanni12 The role of starter cultures and spontaneous fermentation in traditional and innovative beer production 231Antonietta Baiano and Leonardo Petruzzi13 Wine microbiology 255Patrizia Romano and Angela Capece14 Starter cultures in vegetables with special emphasis on table olives 283Francisco Noé Arroyo-López, Antonio Garrido-Fernández and Rufino Jiménez-Díaz15 New trends in dairy microbiology: Towards safe and healthy products 299Ana Rodríguez, Beatriz Martínez, Pilar García, Patricia Ruas-Madiedo and Borja Sánchez16 Sausages and other fermented meat products 324Renata E.F. Macedo, Fernando B. Luciano, Roniele P. Cordeiro and Chibuike C. Udenigwe17 Fermentation of fish-based products: A special focus on traditional Japanese products 355Takashi Kuda18 Traditional alkaline fermented foods: Selection of functional Bacillus starter cultures for soumbala production 370Labia Irène I. Ouoba19 Ethnic fermented foods 384Marianne Perricone, Ersilia Arace, Giuseppe Calò and Milena SinigagliaIndex 407