Consumers worldwide are increasingly demanding food with fewer ingredients, preferably without chemical additives. The trend called “Clean Label” has stimulated the development and commercialization of new types of bioprotective bacterial cultures. These bacteria are not considered new, and several cultures have been available on the market. Additionally, new bioprotective bacteria are being identified to service the clean label trend, extend the shelf life, and, mainly, improve the food safety of food. In this context, the lactic acid bacteria (LAB) have been extensively prospected as a bioprotective culture, as they have a long history in food production and their antimicrobial activity against spoilage and pathogenic microorganisms is well established. However, to make LAB cultures available in the market is not that easy, the strains should be characterized phenotypically and genotypically, and studies of safety and technological application are necessary to validate their bioprotection performance. Thus, this review presents information on the bioprotection mechanisms developed by LAB in foods and describes the main strategies used to identify and characterize bioprotective LAB with potential application in the food industry.

Few studies have investigated the diversity of spoilage fungi from the dairy production chain in Brazil, despite their importance as spoilage microorganisms. In the present study, 109 filamentous fungi were isolated from various spoiled dairy products and dairy production environments. The isolates were identified through sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region. In spoiled products, Penicillium and Cladosporium were the most frequent genera of filamentous fungi and were also present in the dairy environment, indicating that they may represent a primary source of contamination. For dairy production environments, the most frequent genera were Cladosporium, Penicillium, Aspergillus, and Nigrospora. Four species (Hypoxylon griseobrunneum, Rhinocladiella similis, Coniochaeta rosae, and Paecilomyces maximus) were identified for the first time in dairy products or in dairy production environment. Phytopathogenic genera were also detected, such as Montagnula, Clonostachys, and Riopa. One species isolated from the dairy production environment is classified as the pathogenic fungi, R. similis. Regarding the phylogeny, 14 different families were observed and most of the fungi belong to the Ascomycota phylum. The understanding of fungal biodiversity in dairy products and environment can support the development of conservation strategies to control food spoilage. This includes the suitable use of preservatives in dairy products, as well as the application of specific cleaning and sanitizing protocols designed for a specific group of target microorganisms.