Produção de queijos artesanais: uma revisão de literatura

Abstract

Fresh cheese is understood to be one that is ready for consumption after manufacture and matured cheese, one that has undergone biochemical and physical changes, giving it different varieties and flavors. Fresh and matured handicraft cheeses are widely accepted in the trade, thus becoming a food that is often found on the table of Brazilian consumers. It is considered one of the main products derived from milk, and most of them are made from milk without going through the pasteurization process, that is, raw milk. Because it is considered an handicraft product, it has specific characteristics acquired from the region where it is manufactured, therefore, there are different modes of production for the same product. The microbiology involved in the process is still poorly understood. The lack of good hygienic sanitary practices in cheese production, can considerably affect its quality and cause a series of complications in the human body, such as food poisoning and infection, since it is considered a pathogen vehicle. During the production of handcrafit and aged cheeses, there is a great presence of contamination agents and the fact that they are prepared from raw milk, indicates a great deal of handling during the process. The contaminating agents come from inanimate surfaces, lack of hygienic practices, inadequate handling and cross-contamination, and can be classified as biological, when they contain substances produced by microorganisms; chemicals, when there is presence or residue of chemical reagents; physical when contamination occurs by fragments of objects used in production. The objective of this work was to carry out a literature review on the hygienic-sanitary quality standards of handicraft cheeses, as well as their evaluation.