Biofilm - An unrecognised source of spoilage enzymes in dairy products?

Enzymes play an important role in food processing, where they either increase or decrease the value of food commodities. Within the dairy context, undesirable enzymes include indigenous enzymes originating from the cow and microbial enzymes produced by the natural bacteria associated with the cow and its environment. Some of the heat-stable enzymes can remain active after the heat treatments applied during processing and may eventually reduce the quality of the final product. Biofilms may play a role in promoting enzyme production in microorganisms because of the microenvironments created within the biofilm structure. Many studies have been carried out on indigenous and bacterial enzymes that occur in milk, but few studies have looked at the relationship between spoilage enzymes and biofilms. We suggest that bacterial biofilms in dairy manufacture can be a source of dairy spoilage enzymes. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.