Determination of Total, Viable Cells and Enterobacteraceae in Categorized Milk Powder

Abstract

The present study was conducted to examine the microbiological quality of commercial milk powders. A total of 30 dried milk powders, 10 each of Skim Milk Powder (SMP), Semi Skim Milk Powder (SSMP) and Full Cream Milk Powder (FCMP) purchased from market of Hyderabad, Sindh were evaluated for microbiological quality characteristics, like Total Viable Count (TVC), thermoduric count and Enterobacteraceae Count (EbC). Total viable count, (6.1 x 10³±7.2 x 10²cfu/g) and Enterobacteraceae count, (2.3 x 10³±2.6 x 10²cfu/g) were significantly (p<0.05) higher in FCMP compared to SMP (3.7 x 10³±9.8 x 10² and 1.7 x 10³±1.7 x 10²cfu/g, respectively) and SSMP (3.5 x 10³±4.4 x 10² and 1.5 x 10³±1.0 x 10²cfu/g, respectively). The overall average concentration of TVC (4.43 x 10³±4.8 x 10²cfu/g) in dried milk powder was recovered lower (11.28 folds) compared to Pakistan Standard Institution (PSI) and/or Indian Standard Institution (ISI) (5.0 x 10⁴ cfu/g) and the overall average count of Eb (1.84 x 10³±1.2 x 10²) were detected higher, (18.4 folds) compared to ISI standard respectively. Although TV count were within the range of standard of specification (PSI/ISI), but the counts of, Eb indicates the unhygienic condition of dried milk powders with higher risk level for human health.