Kishk - a dried fermented milk/cereal mixture. 4. Microbiological quality

The microflora of 25 samples of Kishk were determined. Pathogens such as St aphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Salmonella sp., Listeria sp., Campyl obacter sp., Yersinia sp. and Brucella sp. were not recovered from any of t he samples at the levels tested. Enterotoxins of staphylococci, bacilli and clostridia also were not detected. Bacillus cereus, aerobic spores, total viable count and contaminants were recovered in appreciable numbers, and so me B. cereus strains that may produce toxins could be the major bacteriolog ical risk associated with this product. Coliforms, faecal enterococci and C lostridium perfringens were only recovered from samples 7 and 1, respective ly. However, yeasts and moulds were recovered intermittently from some of t he Kishk samples, and the possible high count of yeast (8.5 x 10(5) cfu.g(- 1)) could be attributed to the possible use of 'artisan'-type starter cultu re containing lactose fermenting yeast. The lactic acid bacteria counts wer e up to 3.0 x 10(3) cfu.g(-1) and 1.2 x 10(6) cfu.g(-1) for lactococci and lactobacilli, respectively. The overall inherent characteristics of Kishk ( 0.4 water activity [A(W)], 3.8 pH, high in salt and contains a wide range o f organic acids) contributes towards the microbiological safety of the prod uct. (C) Inra/Elsevier, Paris.