Fresh cheese is a widely accepted food, but its specific physical and chemical characteristics contribute to its perishability. As food technology is constantly challenged to produce functional products with improved nutritional properties and a longer shelf life, this paper examines the advantage of using kombucha as an alternative starter culture in the production of fresh cheese. The study included the analysis of milk as the starting raw material, fresh cheese produced using a commercial starter culture, as well as cheese where the commercial starter culture was replaced with kombucha. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry showed the presence of 24 fatty acids, with a notable dominance of saturated fatty acids, followed by monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids, with an average content of 60.45, 34.75, and 4.05%, respectively. Also, the abundance of the oleic acid, the presence of the trans fatty acids with health beneficial properties, as well as essential fatty acids should be emphasized within samples. Cheese samples contained higher ash content than milk, ranging from 1.05 to 1.51 g/100 g. As for micro- and macroelements, kombucha cheese contained higher levels of calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, zinc, copper, and manganese, along with lower sodium in comparison to cheese made with commercial starter culture. These findings indicate that replacing the conventional starter culture with kombucha enhances the nutritional profile of fresh cheese, thus highlighting its potential in the production of functional dairy products.
Aleksic et al. (Thu,) studied this question.