Estimating the Microbial Safety and Sensory Characteristics of Some Imported Dairy Products Retailed in the Egyptian Markets
Estimating the Microbial Safety and Sensory Characteristics of Some Imported Dairy Products Retailed in the Egyptian Markets
Esraa Yosry Abdel Halim1, Hamdy El-Essawy1, Abeer Abdel Nasser Awad1, Mona S. El-Kutry2, Lamiaa Ibrahim Ahmed1*
ABSTRACT
Intensive dairy products’ usage, recent growth of globalization and the widespread of international trade mandate the microbial evaluation of the imported dairy products. In the present study, ninety random samples of imported milk powder, labneh and cheddar cheese from New Zealand, Ireland, Turkey, Poland, Netherlands, European Union and Switzerland were collected from the Egyptian markets then were investigated organoleptically and microbiologically. The sensory evaluation revealed that the majority of the examined labneh and cheddar cheese got excellent and good scores, while 90 % of milk powder samples got good scores, based on the overall acceptability scale. The mean titratable acidity percentages of milk powder, labneh and cheddar cheese samples were 0.169 ± 0.018, 0.935 ± 0.046 and 0.197 ± 0.013, respectively. Microbiological examinations revealed that all the examined samples were highly contaminated with aerobic mesophilic bacteria observed in milk powder and cheddar cheese with non-significant difference (p=0.408). Aerobic spore formers were recovered from in 50%, 66.67% and 86.67% of the tested samples with a significant difference between the mean count of milk powder and that of labneh and cheddar cheese (P> 0.05). 66.67% of milk powder samples were contaminated with coliforms, followed by cheddar cheese (43.33%) and labneh (23.33%), E. coli could be isolated from milk powder samples, while Salmonella species couldn’t be detected in any of the examined samples. Staphylococci were recovered from most of the examined milk powder (83.33%), cheddar cheese (93.33%), and nearly half of the examined labneh (46.67%) samples, with non-significant differences between that of milk powder and labneh (p=0.572), and cheddar cheese (p=0.345). the majority of cheddar cheese (83.33%) and labneh (63.33%) samples were contaminated with yeast and mold. Additionally, proteolytic and lipolytic organisms were present nearly in most of the examined samples, which resulted in lowering the flavor and texture scores of the tested products. Finally, public awareness targeting the imported companies and good hygienic practices should be fullfilled during handling, packaging, storage and distribution.
Keywords | Milk powder, Labneh, Cheddar cheese, Microbial examination, Sensory characteristics, E. coli
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