Survival of Salmonella in Cheddar Cheese

Abstract

Salmonella newport, S. new-brunswick, and S. infantis were singly added to Cheddar cheese milk to evaluate the behavior of Salmonella in Cheddar cheese made from the milk and to obtain survival times when cheese was stored at different temperatures. Of a total of 48 lots of cheese inoculated with Salmonella, detectable numbers of these pathogens appeared in 16 samples aged at 4.5 C for 9 months and from six samples stored at 10 C. The information obtained under the conditions of this study indicates that these enteropathogenic microorganisms when initially present in large numbers in milk can survive for extended storage periods in Cheddar cheese of high pH made from the milk.