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Enterococci in Young Cheddar Cheese¹

Department of Dairy and Food Industry, Iowa State University, Ames

ABSTRACT

In a study of the low-temperature microflora of young Cheddar cheese, 1,117 microorganisms, representing 41 cheese samples, were isolated, characterized, and identified. A total of 578 isolates, 51.7% of the microbial flora, were enterococci. This group of microorganisms constituted the entire population recovered from ten of the samples and more than 70% of the population recovered from 11 other samples. Enterococci were found in all but five samples, occurring much more frequently than any other group of microorganisms.

Of the 578 enterococcus isolates, 345 (60%) belonged in the Streptococcus durans group, 159 (27%) were identified as Streptococcus faecalis, 59 (10%) as S. faecalis var. liquefaciens, and 15 (3%) as S. faecalis var. zymogenes.

Computed numbers of enterococci ranged from 54 x 10 ³/gram in one sample, having an agar plate count at 7.2 C of 45 x 10 ⁴/gram, to 49 x 10 ⁶/gram in another sample having an agar plate count of 49 x 10 ⁶/gram. The cheese sample containing the highest agar plate count, 100 x 10 ⁶/gram, had a computed enterococcus count of 210 x 10 ⁶/gram.

¹ Journal Paper no. J-4929 of the Iowa Agricultural and Home Economics Experiment Station, Ames, Iowa. Project no. 1188.

² Present address: Anderson Erickson Dairy Company, Des Moines, Iowa.

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