Evaluation of microbial characteristics of traditional butter made from cow and sheep milk in Ilam city, Iran

Butter is a known dairy product in the world and has an important role in human nutrition. Ignoring sanitary tips in this product leads to low quality of the product and outbreak. Therefore, this study aims to investigate bacterial pollution of local butter produced from cow and sheep milk in Ilam city.

In this analytical study, 150 samples of traditional cow and sheep butter were collected and studied for microbial contamination for 1 month from different production centers. SPSS version 23 software was used to analyze the collected data.

From 75 samples of cow butter, 25.3% of the samples are polluted to S. aureus, 44% to S. epidermidis, 38.7% to Salmonella, 12% to Total coliform 10.7% to E. coli, and 12% do not have any pollution. From 75 samples of sheep local butter, 12% of the samples are polluted to S. aureus, 72% to S. epidermidis, 48% to Salmonella, 24% to Total coliform, and 17.3% to E. coli. A significant difference (P< 0.05) between pollution to S. aureus and S. epidermis in cow and sheep samples exists.

The results of this study showed that contamination of consumed local butter in Ilam city is considerably high; Therefore, it is important to pay attention to food hygiene in different stages from production to consumption.