The Influence of Major Milk Microbiota on the Characteristics of Milk and Milk Products: A Review

Abstract

Milk is a nutrient-rich medium that encourages rapid microbial growth. The microorganisms associated with the milk of different milking animals and milk products have a significant impact on milk including milk from cows, buffalo, goats, and humans. Being nutritionally rich milk is a suitable growth medium for a variety of microorganisms and these have numerous positive and negative impacts on the properties of milk and their products. The high nutritional content of milk supports the growth of both beneficial and harmful microbiota. The entry of these microorganisms into the milk has various paths and sources, and, once in the milk, they start multiplication and increase their numbers. Many of these microbes show biological activities such as spore formation, toxin production, health promotion, biochemical alteration of medium, and other related activities. The authors are trying to present a detailed overview of the source, activity, and beneficial as well as harmful roles of microbes found in milk and milk products. The approach of authors to comprehensively review these topics is to examine the details of the microorganisms of milk to find out the activity and approach for improving milk processing and product stability for storage and sustainability in milk processing.