Key words:white soft cheese, Coliforms, Staphylococcal enterotoxins, Aflatoxin M1 and M2White soft cheese is widely consumed by the Egyptian population and could be contaminated during manufacturing, handling and distribution. So, to assess safety and detect the public health hazards of traditional white soft cheese, one hundred samples represented as (40 Kareish cheese, 30 Damietta cheese and 30 Feta cheese) were collected randomly from supermarkets, and street-vendors at Alexandria Governorate. The results revealed that the incidence of Coliforms group were 75 and 20 % in the examined Kareish and Damietta cheeses, respectively with respective logarithmic (log) mean values were 5.49 ± 0.62 and 4.10 ± 0.15 cfu/g, on the other hand coliforms failed to be detected in Feta cheese samples. The incidence of Staphylococcus aureus were 55, 83.33 and 26.66% in Kareish, Damietta and Feta cheeses samples, respectively, with a log mean values 4.42 ± 0.89; 4.94 ± 0.61 and 2.70 ± 0.62 cfu/g. Staphylococcal enterotoxin A could be detected qualitatively by using ELISA in the examined Kareish and Damietta cheeses and Enterotoxin C could be detected only in Damietta cheese while, Enterotoxin D could be detected only in Feta cheese. Salmonella was failed to be detected in all examined samples. While, the incidence of mould were 35 , 46.67 and 10 % in Kareish, Damietta and Feta cheeses samples, respectively with the log mean values 4.49 ± 0.31, 4.26 ± 0.26 and 1.20 ±0.17cfu/g, respectively. The Aflatoxin M1 was detected in 40 and 53.33% of Kareish and Damietta cheeses samples, respectively. While, the Aflatoxin M 2 was detected only in 20% 0f examined Kareish samples but failed to be detected in Damietta cheese samples. Neither M1 nor M 2 were detected in Feta cheese. In conclusion, it was observed that the hygienic quality of white cheeses sold in dairy shops in Alexandria was low and does not have enough assurance in terms of public health. These results emphasize the need for applying more strict hygienic practices, efficient heat treatment, and applying HACCP system.

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Milk as it comes from a normal udder of a healthy animal contains a negligible number of harmful organisms but may be contaminated from variable sources. So this investigations were conducted to collection of forty random samples of raw milk were collected from supermarkets in Alexandria governorate for isolation and identification of some pathogenic microorganisms using conventional methods and advanced techniques. incidence of E. coli, Staph. aureus, listeria monocytogens and salmonella were 80, 45, 5 and 0%, respectively by using plating techniques. These results were confirmed by conventional biochemical identifications but by using vitek 2 compact system (automated biochemical identifications), the incidences were 37.5, 2.5, 0 and 0%, respectively. The incidence of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli isolated from the examined raw milk samples (4/10%) and could be identify virulence genes into four different serotypes including O26:H11 (EHEC), O86 (EHEC), O119:H6 (ETEC) and O125:H21 (EHEC). By using multiplex PCR, it was found that O26:H11 had shigatoxin 1 gene, shigatoxin 2 gene and intimin gene; while O86 and O119:H6 serotypes had only shigatoxin1 gene. O125:H21 serotype had both shigatoxin 1 and shigatoxin 2 genes. It could be concluded that vitek 2 compact system is considered as sensitive and accurate method for identification of some food poisoning microorganisms in comparing with conventional biochemical identifications.