Microbiologically investigation of homemade cheeses and commercial cheeses

In this study, fungal flora of 34 cheeses, which are traditionally made at home and sold commercially in Çankırı province has been investigated. After the cheeses were crushed, they were cultivated in PDA by dilution method. 14 of the cheeses used were homemade and 20 of them were commercially sold cheeses. The 2 fungi species which showed the most growth in homemade cheeses were determined. These species are Geotrichum candidum and Penicillium commune. Apart from these two species, a few cheeses contain Trichoderma sp. and Rhizopus stolonifer developed. Fungal growth was not observed in most of the commercially sold cheeses, while in some cheeses Cladisporium cladosporiodes, Cladosporium herbarum, Penicillium commune and Coprinellus aff. radians species have been identified. Species were identified based on the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of ribosomal DNA of some fungi that were detected frequently, and fungal species were compared by a BLASTn search of the sequence in NCBI. While more fungal growth was detected in traditional house cheeses, this rate was found less in commercial cheeses. Penicillium commune was the most abundant fungus in both homemade and commercial cheeses. Geotrichum candidum was detected only in homemade cheeses, while Cladosporium spp. and Coprinellus aff. radians was detected only in commercially available cheeses. In this study, fungi, which were thought to have occurred in different ways, in both homemade and commercial cheeses in Çankırı province, were determined.