Assessment of Chemical and Microbiological Properties of Rural Kareish Cheese Collected from Different Locations of Sohag Governorate..

In this study, sixty samples of Kareish cheese were randomly collected from four different cities in Sohag Governorate, Egypt to estimate their chemical and microbiological quality. According to the results, the values of Kareish cheese's moisture content, total solid content, acidity, salt, fat, fat/dry matter, total nitrogen, total protein, total protein/dry matter, and soluble nitrogen ranged from 57.01 to 75.63, 24.36 to 45.57, 0.42 to 1.98, 1.18 to 3.79, 2.30 to 4.46%, 8.06 to 13.86, 2.24 to 3.17, 14.30 to 20.49, 38.87 to 71.69, and 0.19 to 0.46, respectively. Moreover, the total bacterial counts varied from 5.84 to 8.55. All 60 samples included detections of E. coli, Shigella & Salmonella and molds & yeasts. The counts of these microorganisms varied from 2.38 to 5.47, 2.45 to 3.38, and 2.23 to 2.62 (log cfu/g), respectively. The results of the microbiological and chemical analyses varied significantly (p<0.05) among the collection sites.