Resumo

Mozzarella is one of the most consumed and appreciated cheese in Brazil and the sliced kind is traditionally used in fast food and pizzas. It presents diverse microflora and the lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are predominant during production and ripening, because they develop an essential role in the organoleptic characteristics of the products. However, improper handling of the food can lead to contamination by bacteria such as Escherichia coli, which has fecal origin. The BAL are widely distributed in foods and are able to provide antagonism to pathogens for having various metabolic products such as antimicrobial substances. The aim of this study was to characterize microbiologically sliced Mozzarella cheese from commercial establishments in the city of Pelotas/RS for the presence of total coliform (TC), E. coli and BAL. For July 2012 to April 2013, 5 collections in 8 establishments were held, coming to 40 samples in total. These were kept in their original packaging and sent to the Laboratory of Food Microbiology/DCTA/UFPel where analyzes were carried out. The count of BAL was performed in agar De Man Rogosa and Sharpe, incubated at 37ºC/72h ± 3h under anaerobic conditions. For enumeration of TC and E. coli were used 3M^TM Petrifilm^TM plates EC and incubation at 37°C/48h ± 3h. TC counts ranged between 1 and 2.74, E. coli between 1 and 2.11 and BAL between 3.8 and 7.52 log CFU/g. It was also observed that the counts of BAL and TC establishments 2 and 8 had a strong correlation (r= -0.7 and -0.78), the establishments 6 and 7 showed moderate correlation (r= -0.37 and -0.42) and 1, 3, 4 and 5 showed no correlation. There was a strong correlation between BAL and E. coli in the samples from establishments 1, 2 e 4 (r= -0.89, -0.96 and -0.80), 7 showed moderate correlation (r= -0.64), 5 e 6 showed low correlation (r= -0.18 e –0.18) and 3 e 8 showed no correlation. A negative correlation coefficient indicates that the larger the count of BAL, the lower the count TC or E. coli. The results suggest that BAL had an influence on the counts of TC and E. coli, possibly due to the production of metabolites that controlled the development of these. Therefore, attention is drawn to the importance of BAL and its ability to antagonism against undesirable microorganisms. Testing of antagonistic activity should be conducted to confirm the results.