The Existence of Enterococcus spp. In Civil Cheese

Abstract

Enterococcus species with lipolytic and proteolytic properties can pass directly from animal faeces or indirectly from contaminated water, equipment or storage tanks into milk. The present study focused on isolation and identification of Enterococcus species and to determine the microbiological characteristics of traditionally produced civil cheese. TMAB, Coliform, Enterococus and yeast-mold counts of 40 civil cheese samples made by traditional method were determined. In addition, Enterococus species was isolated and identified with Vitek2 compact system. total mesophilic aerobic bacteria counts were 8.22 log cfu/g; the number of the number of Enterococci were 5.77 log cfu/g, Coliform bacteria count were of 4.18 log cfu/ g and the number of yeast and mould were 6.35 log cfu/g. It was determined that the isolated 75 Enterococcus strains consisted of 33 Enterococcus faecalis, 23 Enterococcus durans, 12 Enterococcus faecium and 6 Enterococcus gallinarum and 1 Enterococcus avium. As a result, because of the production of fresh civil cheese under unhygienic conditions, its microbiological quality is low. This situation poses a potential health hazard to consumers.