English

Abstract

The study was based on surveying ten samples of Sudanese white cheese packaged in two different containers (plastic and metal), collected from different supermarkets in Khartoum state. The comparison of chemical composition and microbial count was done. The experimental results showed that the average ash content, moisture, acidity, pH, and total solid content means were 7.00 ± 2.73, 45.00 ± 4.81, 0.85 ± 0.12, 5.72 ± 0.25 and 45.00 ± 10.63%, respectively for cheese samples packaged in plastic containers while for samples packaged in metal containers, the values were 5.50 ± 1.11, 52.06 ± 9.18, 1.85 ± 0.41, 5.06 ± 0.33 and 55.00 ± 9.35% for ash content, moisture, acidity, pH, and total solid content, respectively. The average chemical properties showed significant differences between the samples packaged in the two types of containers (P ≤ 0.05). The logarithm counts of total bacteria, yeasts and moulds for the samples packaged in plastic containers were found to be 8.86 ± 4.80 and 0.12 ± 0.16, respectively. On the other hand, the logarithm counts of total bacteria, yeasts and moulds for the samples packaged in metal containers were found to be 13.86 ± 3.61 and 015 ± 0.09, respectively. A clear significant differences between the samples packaged in the two types of containers (P ≤ 0.05) was found. There was no significant correlation between the total bacteria counts and the moisture content of the samples packaged in plastic and metal containers (P ≤ 0.05). The total bacterial count of the samples packaged in plastic and metal containers showed significant correlation to the pH value of the cheese samples collected from the supermarket (P ≤ 0.05).   Key words: Sudanese white cheese, average ash content, microbial count, moisture.