EVALUACIÓN DE LA CALIDAD BACTERIOLÓGICA DE QUESOS FRESCOS EN CAJAMARCA.

Iindustrial fresh cheese coming from the main companies of the city of Cajamarca, is widely consumed by the inhabitants of the city; however, the population does not know it's bacteriological quality, representing a health risk. Likewise, there is no data base of food intoxications presented in the Cajamarca Region. The objective of the research is to determine the microbial load of fresh industrial cheese, as well as to evaluate its bacteriological quality by means of what is established in the Sanitary Standard that constitutes the Microbiological Criteria of Sanitary Quality and Safety for Food and Beverage for Human Consumption. For this, a total of 30 samples of 0.5 kg each were taken from 6 companies producing industrial fresh cheese (A, B, C, D, E and F). The relevant microbiological analyzes were performed for the determination of viable mesophiles, coliforms, Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp. and Staphylococcus aureus. The design was completely randomized with 5 repetitions. At the conclusion of the analysis process, the following average valuesof microbial load were reported: viable mesophiles 1.06×105 CFU/g, total coliforms 6.32×103 MPN/g, fecal coliforms 4.75×103 MPN/g, positive samples for Escherichia coli 33.3%, Staphylococcus aureus 4.02×103 CFU/g and absence of Salmonella spp. These results were compared with the Sanitary Standard that establishes the Microbiological Criteria of Sanitary Quality and Safety for Food and Beverage for Human Consumption "(R.M. N° 591-2008-MINSA) concluding that the cheeses from company F present better microbial conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]