. 2016 Apr 22;47(3):749–756. doi: 10.1016/j.bjm.2016.04.006

Table 3.

Changes in the intrinsic characteristics of the artisanal Minas cheese samples^b artificially contaminated with L. innocua produced in Brazil throughout ripening.

Parameters	Days of ripening
	5	15	30	45	60
Lactic acid bacteria (log CFU/g)	7.40 ± 0.56^a	7.43 ± 0.23^a	7.05 ± 0.27^a	6.67 ± 0.40^a	6.65 ± 0.65^a
Total coliforms (log MPN/g)	5.44 ± 0.64^a	3.71 ± 0.33^ac	2.23 ± 0.30^bc	2.60 ± 0.22^bc	1.14 ± 0.76^b
Thermotolerant coliforms (log MPN/g)	4.80 ± 0.35^a	2.48 ± 0.00^b	0.99 ± 0.34^c	0.83 ± 0.25^c	0.48 ± 0.00^c
Water activity (a_w)	0.910 ± 0.002^a	0.896 ± 0.006^a	0.867 ± 0.012^ab	0.868 ± 0.008^ab	0.831 ± 0.020^b
Moisture (%)	42.810 ± 0.263^a	34.831 ± 1.186^b	30.8442 ± 1.567^bd	31.5717 ± 0.997^bd	28.5437 ± 1.019^cd
pH	5.493 ± 0.044^ab	5.780 ± 0.052^c	5.613 ± 0.038^b	5.533 ± 0.052^a	5.390 ± 0.033^a
Titratable acidity (lactic acid %)	1.004 ± 0.062^a	0.948 ± 0.059^a	1.228 ± 0.022^a	1.348 ± 0.127^a	1.423 ± 0.178^a
NaCl in moisture (%)	0.938 ± 0.029^a	0.539 ± 0.080^b	0.559 ± 0.049^b	0.563 ± 0.053^b	0.691 ± 0.073^ab

Data are the average values and standard error of three batches. There is no statistical difference between the means of the parameters followed by at least the same letter considering the days of ripening at 5% probability by Tukey test.