Diversity of Fungi in the Traditional Slovak Cheese “Parenica”

Fungi as a group are some of the most resilient spoilage microorganisms and are capable of overcoming the control strategies utilized by the food industry. Various fungal propagules are rapidly dispersed by water and air, survive under extreme conditions, and sustainably increase in biomass. The aim of this study were isolation and identification of microscopic filamentous fungi from traditional cow cheese. Altogether, 40 samples of Slovak traditional cheese “Parenica“ were examined. The samples included non-smoked and smoked cheese samples. Microscopic fungi were cultivated on Malt extract agar. Microscopic fungi count was from 1.89 log cfu.g-1 to 2.65 log cfu.g-1. A total of 129 isolates of microscopic fungi were identified in our study. Alternaria and Penicillium (50%) were the most abundant microscopic fungi. Also Aspergillus (45%) and Cladosporium (45%) were frequently identified. Alternaria sp., Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus sp., Cladosporium sp., Mucor sp., Penicillium sp. and Rhizopus sp. were isolated from non-smoked and smoked cheese.