Hygienic Quality and Incidence of Histamine-forming Lactobacillus Species in Natural and Processed Cheese in Taiwan

Hsien-Feng Kung ； Yung-Hsiang Tsai ； Chiu-Chu Hwang ； Yiing-Horng Lee ； Jieh-Horng Hwang ； Cheng-I Wei ； Deng-Fwu Hwang

《藥物食品分析》 Volume 13 Issue 1 (2005/03) Pp. 51-56

Parallel abstracts

Thirty-one natural cheese and 39 processed cheese products were collected from food markets in Taiwan and analyzed for bacterial content and histamine-related quality. The natural cheese samples had ＜1 to 6.84 log colony forming unit (CFU)/g of aerobic plate count (APC) and ＜3 to 60 most probable number (MPN)/g of total coliform (TC). On the other hand, the processed cheese products had ＜1 to 4.57 log CFU/g of APC and ＜3 to 30 MPN/g of TC. None of the tested samples contained Escherichia coli. Only 2 of the natural cheese and 2 of the processed cheese products contained more than 10 MPN/g of TC, which is beyond the regulatory limit of hygienic quality. The tested natural cheese products had an average histamine content of 7.9 mg 100/g, while 17 of them (54.8%) had histamine content greater than the 5 mg/100 g limit set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for scombroid fish and or product. In contrast, only 6 processed cheese products (15.4%) had histamine levels greater than this limit. The average content of the other 8 biogenic amines in all tested samples was lower than 2 mg/100 g. Among the 37 presumptive histamine-forming bacterial colonies isolated from the natural cheese products, 15 produced histamine, ranging from 6.4 to 16.4 ppm, in MRS broth supplemented with 0.25% L-histidine. These histamine-producing bacteria were identified as Lactobacillus spp. Of the 7 L. brevis identified, one produced 71.2 ppm of tyramine in histidine-supplemented MRS broth.

Parallel keywords

Cheese ； histamine ； biogenic amine ； hygienic quality ； histamine-forming bacteria