The objective of this work was to evaluate the microbiological characteristics of fermented dairy beverages commercialized in southern Minas Gerais. The enumeration of total and heat-tolerant coliforms, filamentous fungi and lactic bacteria and yeasts was carried out. Samples were collected from different manufacturing lots of five brands of dairy beverages commercialized in Lavras-MG, with four repetitions and submitted to microbiological analyses. The fermented dairy beverages met the standards required by ANVISA for presence of microbial contamination, since no contamination was detected in the samples analyzed. Lactic bacteria count was lower than 10(6) UFC/mL in all the analyses and did not meet out legal parameters established by the Brazilian legislation for fermented dairy beverages.
Fermented dairy beverage; contamination; lactic bacteria
