A HEALTH-SANITARY EVALUATION OF LACTEAL DESSERTS FOR CONSUMPTION IN SANTA-CRUZ-DE-TENERIFE

The consumption of lacteal desserts in the province of Santa Cruz de T enerife is notably high. However, there are no legal standards in Spai n regarding microbiological quality. For this reason, we have decided that it would be of interest to carry out a health-sanitary study of t hese products, with the aim of discovering their microbial content. 33 0 samples of lacteal desserts on sale in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife have undergone analysis. They have been divided into three g roups: cream caramel (egg and vanilla) (80), mousse (60) and the third group, known as ''other desserts'', which includes custard and the re st of lacteal desserts not included in the previous groupings (190). N either E. coli, Salmonella spp., Shigella spp., nor Staphylococcus aur eus have been detected in any of the samples analysed. In spite of the fact that the results obtained do not reflect high microbiological co ntamination, we consider it necessary to lay down legal standards, wit h reference values, for these lacteal products, which will guarantee g ood microbiological quality.