MICROBIOLOGICAL EVALUATION OF WATER BUFFALO COLOSTRUM: FIRST RESULTS

Abstract

Animal colostrum contains many substances with antibacterial activity such as lysozyme and lactoferrin which should inhibit the microbial growth. The aim of this research is to understand if colostrum can be considered a safe product, considering that Regulation (EC) N° 1662/2006, which has modified the Regulation (EC) N° 853/2004, introducing colostrum as human food. Microbiological tests, made on water buffalo colostrum, aiming to obtain the total microbial count (maximum concentration: 3,6•104 ufc/ml), the quantitative evaluation of total (maximum the highest concentration found: 2,3•103 ufc/ml) and fecal coliforms (maximum concentration: 4,9•102 ufc/ml) and the qualitative search of Salmonella spp. and Listeria monocytogenes, showed that there is not a microbial growth in colostrum, that it can be considered a safe food, from the microbial point of view

Keywords

• water buffalo colostrum, microbiology, food hygiene