Artisanal dairy products are widely consumed and also contribute to the Egyptian culture. They do not receive any heat treatment and could be contaminated during manufacturing, handling and distribution. So, to assess safety and detect the public health hazards of these products, ninety samples represented as (30 artisanal butter,30 kareish cheese and 30 plain yoghurt) were collected randomly from street-vendors at Alexandria city. Results given revealed that incidence of Coliforms group were 83.33,93.33 and 80% in the examined artisanal butter, kareish cheese and plain yoghurt with mean value of 1.17 x 103 ± 2.63 x 102, 8.82 x 104 ± 1.16 x 103 and 3.71 x 103 ± 1.17 x 103, respectively. The most predominant isolated Coliforms were Enterobacter aerogenes and E.Coli in all examined artisanal products. While, the respective incidence of Staphylococcus aureus were 76.66,70 and 73.33% with mean values of 1.04 x 103 ± 2.06 x 102, 3.25 x 103 ± 4.54 x 102 and 1.41 x 103 ± 3.79 x 102.The incidence of mould were 63.33,83.33 and 93.33% in artisanal butter, kareish cheese and yoghurt, respectively with mean value of 5.21 x 102 ± 1.09 x 102, 1.19 x 104 ± 2.47 x 102 and 9.51 x 102 ± 1.58 x 103,respectively. The most predominant isolated Moulds were Aspergillus and Penicillium spp. in all examined artisanal products All these incidences failed to conform with Egyptian specifications. Thus, strict hygienic measures should be followed during processing, handling and distribution to improve the hygienic quality of artisanal dairy products.
Key words: artisanal butter, kareish cheese, yoghurt, Coliforms, staphylococcus aureus, mould
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