Bacteriological Quality and Incidence of Some Pathogenic Bacteria in FreshWhite Cheese Sold in Tripoli, Libya

摘要

The aim of this study was to evaluate the bacteriological quality and safety of fresh white cheese sold in Tripoli, Libya. The study lasted for approximately 7 months (November 2011-May 2012), during this period 87 fresh white cheese samples were collected from seven different areas (4 to 5 factories from each area with the rate of 3 duplicates). The samples were tested for temperature at receiving, pH and acidity, total aerobic counts, total coliform counts and the detection of incidence of some pathogenic bacteria including: Escherichia coli, Escherichia coli O157:H7, Staphylococous aureus, Salmonella spp., Aeromonas hydrophila and Listeria monocytogenes. Results indicated that the average temperature, % acidity, and pH of the tested samples were (15.80°C ± 5.8, 0.21 ± 0.02% and 5.81 ± 0.06) respectively. Data indicated that 70.1% of the samples exceeded the Libyan standard for white cheese No. 366 in respect to temperature, while pH of all samples was within the limits of such standard. On the other hand, means of total aerobic counts, total coliform counts, and the numbers of Staphyloccoccus aureus were (38 × 107, 74 × 105, 35 × 104 and 53 × 103 cfu/g) respectively of the study.