The quality of Minas Frescal cheese produced by different technological processes

The present work evaluated the influence of three different cheesemaking processes on the physicochemical characteristics and the microbiological quality of the Brazilian Minas Frescal cheese. A survey was conducted with 93 samples of Minas Frescal cheese collected from supermarkets located in the city of Campinas-Sao Paulo, 31 samples being processed by the addition of a lactic culture (LC), 31 by direct acidification (DA) with lactic acid and 31 by ultrafiltration (UF). The analyses of the physicochemical characteristics involved the determination of water activity, pH, titratable acidity and moisture content. All the samples were analysed for the presence of fecal coliforms, coagulase positive staphylococci, Salmonella spp. and Listeria monocytogenes. The results showed that the UF processed cheese presented the best microbiological quality among the technological processes considered in this survey, despite of the more favourable conditions for the growth of pathogenic microorganisms provided by its physicochemical characteristics, when compared to the LC and DA ones.