The Effect of Lipolytic Enzymes of Bacillus spp. on Quality of Ultra-High-Temperature-Treated Milk

Lipolysis was monitored based on determining the concentration of free fatty acids in milk, on the model case of UHT milk contamination with spores of 15 B. licheniformis, B. subtilis and B. cereus strains isolated from farm environment and raw milk. Lipolysis was not recorded at storage temperature of 4 °C, whereas significant changes in levels of free fatty acids were shown at storage temperature of 24 °C. After 3 weeks of storage the initial content of 41.97 mmol·kg-1 of fat rose to as much as 1,617.22 mmol·kg-1 of fat. The extent of the change depended mainly on the Bacillus spp. species and the storage period and, to a certain degree, also on the initial number of microorganisms. Significant lipolytic activity was detected in association with B. licheniformis and B. cereus species. It was found that spores of resistant B. licheniformis strains may survive 100 °C/10 min and 135 °C/5 s heating and show lipolytic activity

Staphylococcus aureus growth and enterotoxin production in different types of milk

The aim of our study was to assess Staphylococcus aureus growth and the time of first detection of staphylococcal enterotoxins type A, B and C (SEA, SEB, SEC) in different type of milk, depending on the strain and storage conditions. Raw, pasteurized, and UHT milk were inoculated with three strains of S. aureus, and growth patterns were determined by the plate method in accordance with EN ISO 6888-1. Baird-Parker agar medium was used for the detection of S. aureus and the Enzyme Linked Fluorescent Assay (ELFA) used with a miniVIDAS analyzer tested the production of staphylococcal enterotoxins. The results of model experiments showed the dependence of the growth rate and subsequent production of staphylococcal enterotoxins on incubation (storage) temperature, S. aureus strain, and type of milk. A significant finding was that the growth of S. aureus and production of enterotoxins in raw milk was inhibited by natural microflora, and production of enterotoxins was therefore not detected in raw milk within 102 hours of storage either at 15 °C or 22 °C. The highest risk of SEs production is associated with secondary contamination of pasteurized and UHT milk when stored at room temperature, where production was first detected after 12 hours of incubation