Bactofugation is actually centrifugation of milk in which bacteria and their spores are removed from milk due to the difference in density. When cheese milk is not heat treated or some spores survive despite the heat treatment, the late blowing defect often occurs in those cheeses, which is often caused by the spores of Clostridium tyrobutyricum. Spores, that survive heat treatment, can later develop into vegetative cells. Cheeses, in which late blowing occurs, are not harmful to health but are unacceptable for consumption so these products must be discarded. As studies show, bactofugation is very efficient in removing those spores (99 %) and thus preventing late blowing defect. It is mostly used in the production of hard and semi-hard cheeses, but it could also be used in the industry of processed cheese, whey concentrates, powdered milk and infant formulas. Bactofugate is the concentrate which mostly contains bacteria, spores and some milk components. It can be heat treated and returned into milk or discarded, which poses an environmental problem due to pollution, so new approaches are developed on how to reuse bactofugates, for example as growth media for lactic acid bacteria.
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