Xynotyri is an unpasteurized

whey Whey is the liquid remaining after milk has been curdled and strained. It is a byproduct of the manufacturing of cheese or casein and has several commercial uses. Sweet whey is a byproduct resulting from the manufacture of rennet types of har ...

cheese from

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

made from

sheep's milk Sheep's milk (or ewes' milk) is the milk of domestic sheep. It is commonly used to make cultured dairy products such as cheese. Some of the most popular sheep cheeses include feta (Greece), ricotta (Italy), and Roquefort (France). Sheep breeds S ...

or goat's milk, with a hard and flaky consistency, a pungent aroma and a

yogurt Yogurt (; , from tr, yoğurt, also spelled yoghurt, yogourt or yoghourt) is a food produced by bacterial fermentation of milk. The bacteria used to make yogurt are known as ''yogurt cultures''. Fermentation of sugars in the milk by these bac ...

-like sweet and sour taste. "Xynotyri" means "sour cheese" in

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

. Traditionally, the cheese is drained and cured in reed baskets or allowed to mature in bags made of animal skin.

Cow's milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfed human infants) before they are able to digest solid food. Immune factors and immune-modulati ...

is not utilized in the production. Xynotyri cheese can be consumed either as fresh cheese or after being ripened with the use of naturally dominating

microflora Microbiota are the range of microorganisms that may be commensal, symbiotic, or pathogenic found in and on all multicellular organisms, including plants. Microbiota include bacteria, archaea, protists, fungi, and viruses, and have been found to ...

during a 3-month maturing period. The

Lactobacillus ''Lactobacillus'' is a genus of Gram-positive, aerotolerant anaerobes or microaerophilic, rod-shaped, non-spore-forming bacteria. Until 2020, the genus ''Lactobacillus'' comprised over 260 phylogenetically, ecologically, and metabolically div ...

strains in Xynotyri have

antibacterial An antibiotic is a type of antimicrobial substance active against bacteria. It is the most important type of antibacterial agent for fighting bacterial infections, and antibiotic medications are widely used in the treatment and prevention ...

effects that kill Salmonella

pathogens In biology, a pathogen ( el, πάθος, "suffering", "passion" and , "producer of") in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a ger ...

, a finding that is of special interest for producers of health-giving cheeses according to researchers at the French Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale. Fayol-Messaoudi, D. et al. (2007). "The Lactobacillus plantarum strain ACA-DC287 isolated from a Greek cheese demonstrates antagonistic activity in vitro and in vivo against Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium". Journal of Applied Microbiology 103 (3), 657–665. . .

References

Greek cheeses Sheep's-milk cheeses Goat's-milk cheeses {{cheese-stub

See also

References