Chemical Composition, Microbial Profile and Identification of Lactic Acid Bacteria of Moroccan Fermented Camel Milk “Lfrik”

Abstract

A total of 15 spontaneously fermented camel milk “Lfrik” samples were collected from 15 traditional dairies in the city of Laayoune and analyzed for their physicochemical composition and microbial profile. Theses samples were made from raw camel milk and kept to ferment spontaneously in a goat skin bag during about 12h at room temperature. The same fermentation process was observed in all the dairies. “Lfrik” samples showed the average respective values of 5.21, 0.42 % and 1.027 for pH, lactic acid content and density. Chemical composition average values were 9.55%, 0.84%, 3.41%, 3.80%, 2.46% and 0.22% for total solid, ash, fat, lactose, protein and NaCl contents, respectively. Microbiological analysis revealed the predominance of lactic acid bacteria, the presence of high numbers of coliforms and Enterococci and the absence of Salmonella and S.aureus in “Lfrik” samples analyzed. A major proportion of the 93 lactic acid bacteria isolated from these samples was identified as Lactobacilli (35%), the other isolates belonged to Lactococcus (25%), Enterococcus (17%), Leuconostoc (13%) and Streptococcus (10%). Among the identified lactic acid bacteria, the most dominant species were: Lactococcus lactis subsp lactis biovar diacetylactis, Lactobacillus brevis and Streptococcus salivarius subsp.thermophilus.