Evaluating Tallaga Cheese Chemically and Microbiologically with Focusing on its Fraud Depending on Chromatographic Analysis

Abstract

The current study was deliberated to evaluate safety and quality of small scale Tallaga cheese sold in Egyptian markets, as well as detecting its fraud. Fifty samples were examined chemically and microbiologically with special reference to fatty acid profile and presence of inhibitory substances. Results showed that the mean values of fat, T.S, moisture and fat/T.S % were 38.13, 47.17, 52.80 and 69.24 %, respectively. Samples from twelve small scale plants were examined for fatty acid profile, the majority of examined samples lack butyric fatty acid in their profile that characterizes milk fat. A high content of palmitic acid reached to 48% found in some market samples, others had a high percent of unsaturated fatty acids as compared to control treatments prepared in lab which indicated the skimming of milk fat with addition of vegetable oils. The ratio of n-6/n-3 in most examined samples (83.33%) exceeds the permitted limits. On detecting addition of inhibitory substance one sample was found to contain benzoate and other contains carbonate. Microbiological examination of samples revealed that mean values of total bacterial, yeast and mold counts were 70×10⁷, 20×10⁷ and 10×10² CFU/g, respectively. This study recommends application of restricted regulations on small factories, labeling of its products must be mandatory in order not to fraud consumers, as well as great attention must be paid for using fatty acid profile for detecting adulteration without depending only on determining fat%.