HEALTH ASPECTS OF ARTISANAL MINAS CHEESE SOLD IN FREE MARKETS

Abstract

The artisanal Minas cheese, a product widely consumed in Brazil is produced with raw mi lk , a nd as s uch, ma y harm the heal th of consumers by the presence of pathogenic microorganisms. In order to veri fy the quality of ar ti sanal Minas cheeses commercialized in street markets of Uberlândia/MG were collected 23 samples of this product. It was analyzed the moi stur e content (%), qu antification of tot al and thermot olera nt coli forms (MPN.g^-1) a nd coagulase positive staphylococci (CFU.g^-1) and a na lysi s for pr esence/absence of S almon ella spp. The results of Staphylococcus and coliform cou nt s were cor rel ated with t he moi stur e content. Of the samples analyzed, 65.2% (15/ 23) and 100% had resul ts above those allowed by law for the coli form and coagulase posit ive sta phylococci grou ps, r espect ively, being considered unfit for consumption. The average humidit y of the cheese was 40.8 7%. The corr elat ion coefficient between moi stu re a nd counts of total and faecal coliforms was 0.87 and 0.82, and for coagulase posit ive staphylococci was 0.57 , i ndi cati ng that the higher the humidi ty, the higher is the microbial counts. It wa s not detected the presence of Salmonella spp. in any sample. The resul t s indicate that artisanal Minas cheeses commercialized in free market s of Uberlândia (MG) deserve attention from public health agencies a nd consumers, because they offer a public health risk.