Microbial Dynamics of a Specialty Italian Raw Ewe’s Milk Cheese Curdled with Extracts from Spontaneous and Cultivated Onopordum tauricum Willd

Milk coagulants prepared by maceration of flowers harvested from both spontaneous andcultivated Onopordum tauricum Willd. and a commercially available coagulant obtained from Cynaracardunculus L. (control) were assayed for small-scale manufacturing of Caciofiore, an Italian specialtyraw ewe’s milk cheese produced in a family run dairy farm located in the Marche region (CentralItaly). The microbiota of the three thistle-based milk coagulants and their effect on the microbialdynamics of raw milk cheeses during fermentation and maturation (from day 0 up until day 60) wereinvestigated through a combined approach based on viable counting and Illumina DNA sequencing.In both the control and experimental cheeses, despite the slight differences emerged depending onthe coagulant used, Lactococcus lactis and Debaryomyces hansenii were the prevalent species amongbacteria and fungi, respectively. Moreover, raw ewe’s milk was the main factor affecting the evolutionof both the bacterial and fungal microbiota in all cheeses. The overall similarities between controland experimental cheeses herein analyzed supports the exploitation of Onopordum tauricum Willd. asan alternative milk coagulating agent for production of Caciofiore and, more in general, raw ewe’smilk cheeses.