In vitro assessment of health-promoting benefits of sheep ‘Testouri’ cheese

This study aimed to produce probiotic ‘Testouri’, traditional Tunisian sheep cheese, by direct-to-vat inoculum of probiotic adjuncts. The potential of Testouri sheep cheeses was evaluated by an assessment of gross composition and proteolytic, antibacterial, antidiabetic and antioxidant activities during storage at 4 8C for 28 days. Results highlighted that no significant differences were observed in compositional parameters of the samples at day 0. Probiotic counts in cheeses remained at 8 log CFU g1 during storage. Probiotic cheeses exhibited measurable antibacterial activities with the maximum value (diameter of 12 ± 0.07 mm) on Staphylococcus aureus strain. Also, a-glucosidase and a-amylase inhibitions ranged from 42 ± 0.77 to 58 ± 0.88% and 20 ± 0.9 to 47 ± 1.3%, respectively, during storage. Additionally, cheeses inoculated with probiotics exhibited significant increases in proteolytic and antioxidant activities compared to the control sample. Therefore, Testouri cheese can be considered a good carrier of probiotics and can be promoted for commercial uses.