Extending the shelf life of Greek manouri cheese

Abstract

Dairy products are products that are produced from milk. The dairy product that was used for that investigation was manouri cheese, a Greek traditional dairy product, which is produced from the whey isolated after feta’s cheese production. It was isolated two samples after they had appear gas production in packaging and one of them had appear yellow color in the outside surface. We were informed from the producer that these products were not distributed under refrigerated conditions. The samples of manouri which were cut in eight smaller pieces in order to be used each of them for microbiological and physicochemical analyses. The samples were named as A1, B1, B1, B2 which were from the first sample and C1, C2, D1, D2 which were from the second sample. Firstly, it was occurred the microbiological analysis in which it was examined the Enterobacteriaceae, E-coli, staphylococcus aureus, yeasts, listeria, salmonella, bacillus cereus and clostridium perfingens. Then at this stage it was observed that in sample C,D the microorganism that affect the product was Enterobacteriaceae and staphylococcus aureus. The sample A,B was spoiled because of yeast growth. After the microbiological analyses, physicochemical analysis was occurred and it was examined the pH, ash content, moisture, water activity, chroma and texture of the product. The pH of sample A,B on average was 4.5, the water activity 0.9, the chroma 9.7, moisture 42% and ash 5.5%. For sample C, D the pH was 5.2, the water activity 0.9, the chroma 9.6, moisture content was 40% and ash content 5.06%. The results above were useful for the examination of the cause of spoilage because it was analyzed the optimum pH, moisture etc, that microorganisms grown and how factors lie moisture played their role in growth. Overall, the sample were affected by different microorganisms which caused spoilage, the temperature of distribution was the main factor for the multiplication of the microorganisms, so better hygiene practices during production and distribution under refrigeration was suggested.