FUNGAL AND YEAST EVALUATION OF YOGHURT IN MISURATA CITY, LIBYA

Yoghurt is one of the most well-known food products that contain a variety of microbes that has theability to render the customers into danger. The aim of this study is to evaluate the microbial content offermented milk products in Misurats's markets, 20 samples have been collected for plain, fruit, and flavored yoghurt. These samples were transported to the lab to perform microbial examinations. First of all,the pH was measured in the yoghurt samples which were 4.58±0.27 in plain yoghurt, 4.6±0.23 in fruityoghurt and 4.61±0.22 in flavored yoghurt. In addition to bacteria, some yeasts and fungal species isolated including Saccharomyces cerviceae, Candida parapsilosis, Pichia, Rhodotorula rubra, Penicillium, Aspergillus, and Rhizopus were isolated from the examined plain yoghurt samples in the percentageof 50%, 37.5% and 12.5% respectively. While in fruit yoghurt only Mucor and Penicillium were isolatedgiving 33.3, 66.6% respectively, while in flavored yoghurt only Penicillium was isolated by the percentage 100%. When our results were compared with the Libyan standard 4 out of 20 samples were notacceptable in all types of examined yoghurt.