Relationships between physico-chemical parameters and microbial groups in Manchego and Burgos cheeses studied by...

Principal component analysis was used to examine the correlations between two sets of variables, one representing physicochemical characteristics (pH, aw and NaCl, moisture and fat content) of Manchego (36 samples) and Burgos (36 samples) cheeses, and the other representing counts of several microbial groups (mesophiles, psychrotrophs, lactic acid bacteria, coliforms, enterococci, staphylococci and molds and yeasts). Thermonuclease content was also included. In addition to the expected relationships (NaCl content, moisture, aw, etc.), significant correlations between some compositional characteristics and levels of certain microorganisms were found. These correlations were dependent on the type of cheese. Thermonuclease content was positively related to enterococci and ripening (only in Manchego cheese). In contrast to former observations, no relationships were observed between coliforms and enterococci counts.