SURFACE PASTEURIZATION OF COTTAGE CHEESE

Soft fresh cheeses, cottage and quarg, are gaining popularity due to t he concern for freshness, healthy food and weight control. Unfortunate ly, these are perishable products with a shelf life of less than 3 wee ks, the major factor of product spoilage being surface fungi. This stu dy examined the effect of surface-infrared pasteurization of fresh cot tage cheese packed in plastic containers on its microbiological and ph ysicochemical condition during storage. The experimental results show that the surface-pasteurization (5 min, 71 degrees C) reduced the numb er of contaminating yeast and molds in a surface layer of ca. 1 cm dee p by at least 1 order of magnitude, and may imp roves the shelf-life a t a storage temperature of 4 degrees C, to approximately 3-4 weeks.