# Assessment of Quality and Safety of Farm Level Produced Cheeses from Sheep and Goat Milk
## 3 Results
### Cheeses Quality and Safety
#### 3.2.2 Microbial Analyses  
Time of ripening caused changes (\(p<0.001\)) in the number of present bacteria in sheep and goat cheeses. Table 6 shows the mean value of detected bacteria during the ripening time of cheese analyses. The mean value of bacteria from _Enterobacteriaceae_ family changed from 5.84 \(\pm\) 1.14 log CFU/mL in examined sheep milk to 6.12 \(\pm\) 0.82 log CFU/mL in sheep cheese on the first day of ripening. In goat cheese, the mean value of bacteria from _Enterobacteriaceae_ family has increased from 5.68 \(\pm\) 1.53 log CFU/mL in examined goat milk to 6.27 \(\pm\) 087 log CFU/mL in goat cheese on the first day of ripening. No significant change (\(p>0.05\)) in the number of bacteria from the family of _Enterobacteriaceae_ occurred during the ripening time neither in sheep's cheese nor in goat's cheese. However, the number of these bacteria showed a declining trend during the ripening time. In this study, the number of coagulase-positive staphylococci was detected, while in comparison with their number in milk samples, their amount was generally higher in sheep and goat cheees. The number of coagulase-positive staphylococci increased in sheep's cheese compared to the number measured in milk as well as bacteria from _Enterobacteriaceae_ family. Results showed that the mean value increased from 4.33 \(\pm\) 0.57 log CFU/mL detected in sheep milk to 4.45 \(\pm\) 0.64 log CFU/mL detected in sheep cheese during the first day of ripening. The same trend was observed in samples of goat's milk and cheese, where the mean value increased from 4.30 \(\pm\) 0.56 log CFU/mL determined in goat milk \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Sheep Cheeses**} & \multicolumn{5}{c}{**Goat Cheeses**} \\ \hline  & **1 st Day** & **6 th Day** & **12 th Day** & **_p Value_ & **1 st Day** & **6 th Day** & **12 th Day** & **_p Value_ \\ \hline EB & 6.12 \(\pm\) 0.82 & 5.81 \(\pm\) 1.09 & 5.49 \(\pm\) 1.0 & \(>\)0.05 & 6.27 \(\pm\) 0.87 & 5.86 \(\pm\) 1.07 & 5.32 \(\pm\) 0.75 & \(>\)0.05 \\ CoPS & 4.45 \(\pm\) 0.64 & 4.77 \(\pm\) 0.50 & 4.19 \(\pm\) 0.13 & \(>\)0.05 & 5.04 \(\pm\) 0.43 1  & 4.41 \(\pm\) 0.41 & 3.87 \(\pm\) 0.78 2  & \(<\)0.01 \\ LAB & 7.01 \(\pm\) 0.70 2  & 8.32 \(\pm\) 0.47 3  & 9.10 \(\pm\) 0.45 4  & \(<\)0.001 & 7.61 \(\pm\) 0.24 5  & 8.58 \(\pm\) 0.47 3  & 9.46 \(\pm\) 0.48  & \(<\)0.001 \\ \hline  & & & & & & & \\ \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 6: Means and their standard deviations (mean \(\pm\) SD) of the selected bacteria (log CFU/mL) in samples of sheep and goat cheeses at 1 st, 6 th, and 12 th days of ripening. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & & **April** & **May** & **June** & **July** & **August** & **September** & **\(p\) Value** \\ \hline  & 1 st day & 22.24 \(\pm\) 0.01 1  & 22.35 \(\pm\) 0.02 2  & 25.74 \(\pm\) 0.02 2  & 27.67 \(\pm\) 0.04  & 30.02 \(\pm\) 0.05  & 32.02 \(\pm\) 0.05  & \(<\)0.001 \\  & 12 th day & 25.01 \(\pm\) 0.04 1  & 25.52 \(\pm\) 0.03 2  & 34.06 \(\pm\) 0.02  & \(<\)0.001 \\ \hline  & 1 st day & 6.62 \(\pm\) 0.03 2  & 6.56 \(\pm\) 0.02 2  & 5.53 \(\pm\) 0.03 2  & 5.06 \(\pm\) 0.04  & \(<\)0.001 \\ \hline  & & & & & & & \\ \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 5: Means and their standard deviations (mean \(\pm\) SD) of the physical and chemical indicators of goat cheese samples at 1 st, 6 th, and 12 th day of ripening. to \(5.04\pm 0.43\log\) CFU/mL in goat cheese on the first day of ripening. No significant differences (\(p>0.05\)) in the number of coagulase-positive staphylococci during the ripening time were found in sheep cheese samples. Contrarily, in goat cheese samples the numbers decreased from 5.04 \(\pm\) 0.43 log CFU/mL set on the first day of ripening to 3.87 \(\pm\) 0.78 log CFU/mL on the twelfth day of ripening (\(p<0.01\)). Lactic acid bacteria showed statistically significant differences (\(p<0.001\)) in samples of sheep and goat cheeses.