Psychrotrophs in raw milk: effect on texture, proteolysis index, and sensory evaluation of smoked provolone cheese.

Background: Provolone can be fresh or ripened, with its taste varying from sweet to spicy. The high psychrotrophic density of raw milk is associated with thermoresistant enzymes that can change cheese characteristics such as texture, promote sensory defects and decrease industrial yield. Two batches of provolone-type smoked cheese were produced from chilled raw milk with 3 log cfu mL (Treatment 1) and 7 log cfu mL (Treatment 2) of psychrotrophs.