مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - Microbiologic Profile of Kefir which is a Traditional and Functional Food

Abstract :

In this study, microbiological profiles of three kefir produced industrially and marketed, three kefir grains used for traditional production for home-scale and three kefir produced from these grains in laboratory by traditional methods were determined. Total mesophilic aerobic bacteria count, total psychrophilic aerobic bacteria count, acetic acid bacteria count, lactic acid bacteria count, yeast count, mould count, coliform bacteria count, Escherichia coli count and Staphylococcus aureus count analyses were performed to determine the microbial profiles of kefir and kefir grain samples. Total mesophilic aerobic bacteria count results of the kefir and kefir grain samples were between 5,74 and 8,50 log CFU/ml-g, total psychrophilic aerobic bacteria counts were between 1,00 and 7,44 log CFU/ml-g, acetic acid bacteria counts were between 5,28 and 7,55 log CFU/ml-g, lactic acid bacteria counts were between 1,24 and 7,91 log CFU/ml-g, yeast counts were between 1,00 and 5,82 log CFU/ml-g, mould counts were between 1,00 and 3,04 log CFU/ml-g, coliform bacteria counts were between 3 and 1100 MPN/ml-g, Escherichia coli counts were between 3 and 49,66 MPN/ml-g, and Staphylococcus aureus could not be detected in any of the samples. The results were compared with the current rescripts and standards. Industrially production of kefir is quite important because of the standardization problem which could be occur in products traditionally produced with kefir grains and could affect the safety as well as textural and/or sensorial properties of the product. After all, the results of kefir samples -particularly purchased from markets- revealed that the production process of kefir which is consumed as a probiotic food, should be revised and the conditions necessary for microbial viability should be changed for industry.