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[Occurrence of Staphylococcus aureus in "frescal" type cheese]
E de Almeida Filho1, A Nader Filho
1Departamento de Produção Animal, Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Cuiabá, MT, Brasil.
Objective:
To verify the occurrence of Staphylococcus aureus in a sample of cheese sold in a city of the Southeastern region of Brazil and assess the potential risk for the consumers.
Methods:
Eighty samples of homemade cheese sold in a city of the southern region of Brazil were evaluated for the presence and the most probable number of Staphylococcus aureus agents.
Results:
The study revealed the presence of S. aureus in 40 samples (50.0%, with a mean count of 10(5)/g.
Conclusion:
These results are worrisome because the Health Ministry has established a safety threshold of 10(3)/g, and the values obtained are close to the number of bacteria able to produce enough enterotoxins to cause a foodborne disease outbreak.