Abstract

Background: Food-borne diseases can cause many problems and harm consumers and societies. Dairy products are an important part of the food pyramid. In addition, dairy products provide many nutritional needs to humans and can also be contaminated with bacteria and cause gastrointestinal diseases and food poisoning. Objective: The purpose of the present research was to evaluate bacterial contamination rate in cheese, raw and pasteurized milk. Methods: For this purpose, 100 samples, including 35 samples of raw milk samples, 35 samples of pasteurized milk and 30samples of cheese, were evaluated. Cultures, biochemical and phenotypic tests were performed. Finally, statistical analysis was performed. Results: Our finding demonstrates that Enterococcus spp was the highest rate in cheese samples, E.coli was the highest rate in raw milk samples, and citrobacter freundii, klebsiella oxytoca and enterococcus spp were of the same rate in pasteurized milk samples. Conclusion: The results obtained in this study demonstrated that some dairy products in Ilam province, were contaminated. So, we suggested that the pasteurized milk and dairy products be done with complete care and raw dairy products should not be used. © 2021 Bastam et al.