Qualidade microbiológica do queijo de coalho comercializado no município de Patos, PB.

Abstract

The curdled cheese is a widely consumed food from the northeast, characterized as a product of socioeconomic and cultural importance. Its production is mostly handmade, using raw milk as the raw material, which makes this a practical environment conducive to contamination of products. Absence of the Good Manufacturing Practices, linked to transportation, packaging and inadequate forms of exposure, lead the consumer to be exposed to the risk of acquiring Foodborne Diseases. For its socioeconomic importance for the producer from the semi-arid, the study aimed to evaluate the hygienic conditions of curdled cheese commercialized in Brazil through microbiological aspects, by determining the most probable number of total and fecal coliforms at 35 and 45 ° C, for Echerichia coli and Salmonella sp. Taking as a starting point the reading of several works among researchers in different regions of the country, whose goal was to analyze the curdled cheese and Minas type cheese, products which have similar characteristics, and the confrontation between their results, which all pointed to a level of contamination of cheese above 500 MPN / g of thermotolerant coliforms, which indicates the lack of studies in the State of Paraiba, as well as in the backlands of Paraiba, and this fact constitutes a guiding line for the study which aims to characterize the Microbiological quality of curdled cheese in the municipality of Patos-PB, which due to its geographical localization, it became a commercial hub providing large movement of the product, whether for sale or for consumption.