Molecular genotyping of Clostridia population in Grana Padano cheese

Late blowing is still a significant problem in hard cheeses, including Grana Padano (GP), a DOP Italian cheese known worldwide. The main cause of this phenomenon is attributable to butyric Clostridia, gram-positive, spore former bacteria residing in soil that can be included in silages, pass through cows intestine and finally contaminate milk for cheese production, being durable to pasteurisation. In this study, a fingerprinting of Clostridia population in Grana Padano cheese was performed. Moreover, the direct quantification of Clostridium tyrobutyricum in cheese opens the way to further applications such as the analysis of milk contamination, setting in this way a valid and rapid molecular tool to assess milk quality