A Defect of Pimento Cheese

A brief summary of the results of this work is given below:1.Streptococcus lactis was proved not responsible for the sharply acid and bitter flavor.2.The pimentos were not responsible for the defect.3.Aerobic methods failed to disclose the causal organism.4.Nine samples of sharply acid and bitter cheese were found to contain large numbers of spore-forming, gram positive, motile anaerobic bacillus which resembles Clostridium butyricum.5.The increase in sharply acid and bitter flavor was always accompanied by a corresponding increase in volatile acidity.6.The characteristic defect was produced experimentally by the use of a pure culture of the anaerobic bacillus.7.“Shocked” spores of the anaerobic bacillus produced a more active fermentation than the unheated spores.8.Pasteurization of raw milk is equivalent to this method of shocking the spores.9.The associative action of the Streptococcus lactis and the anaerobic bacillus proved more effective than the anaerobe alone.