A combination of chitosan, coating and modified atmosphere packaging for prolonging Fior di latte cheese shelf life

In this work, the addition of chitosan into cheese making, combined with either coating or active coating (lysozyme and ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid, disodium salt) and MAP (modified atmosphere packaging) was used to prolong the shelf life of “Fior di latte” cheese. On the packaged cheese stored at 4 °C microbiological, pH, gas composition and sensory changes were monitored over an 8-day period. Results showed that the combination of chitosan, active coating and MAP improved “Fior di latte” cheese preservation by increasing the shelf life in comparison with the traditional packaging. In fact, the latter showed a very short shelf life limited to more or less 1 day, whereas the integrated approach developed in this study allowed us to obtain a significant shelf life prolongation to 5 days, most probably due to the synergic effect between the active compounds and the atmospheric conditions in the package headspace.