Avaliação do queijo colonial durante a maturação: modificações físico-químicas e microbiológicas

Abstract

The colonial cheese, being made from raw milk, may contain a large amount of undesirable microorganisms responsible for spoilage and serve as indicators of poor hygiene conditions, improper handling and use of utensils and equipment contaminated and poorly sanitized. Thus, the maturation process becomes important in controlling microbial growth. Being a typical product in the southern region of the country, the colonial cheeses have a high consumption by the population and represent the livelihood of many farmers in the region. This study aimed to evaluate changes in colonial cheese produced in a small cheese factory in the municipality of Francisco Beltrão - PR through Physical, chemical and microbiological characteristics during maturation of this product. This type of cheese does not have a specific pattern of manufacturing, so in this paper was presented the flowchart colonial cheese production, which was submitted for analysis. The milk used to manufacture batch of cheese analyzed was also subjected to physico - chemical and microbiological. In the period June to August 2013, 8 weeks, samples were taken from the same lot of cheese weekly directly from the dairy, which were subjected to analyzes of moisture, pH, acidity, Salmonella, Coliforms at 35ºC and 45ºC and coagulase positive Staphylococcus aureus. The results for physical and chemical analysis of raw materials showed values in accordance with the prescribed by law, and microbiological testing of Salmonella, S. aureus, CBT and coliforms at 45ºC met the microbiological standards for raw milk cooling, being only coliforms at 35ºC in high scores. As the physical and chemical analysis of cheese, the mean values for pH was 5.4, acidity in lactic acid from 0.72 to 2.0 % and 42% moisture ( w / v ), being classified as cheese average moisture. Microbiological analyzes of coliforms at 45ºC and 35ºC met the standards from the fourth week of maturation, showed no Salmonella in 25g in all samples and S. aureus showed counts above established by the legislation last week. In general contamination can be prevented by controlling the maturation chamber and care with cross contamination.