The aim of this research is to study the most important physical, chemical and
microbial changes in several kinds of infant milk available in local markets. The milk
samples were studied in conditions similar to those used by mothers when they prep
are
infant milk bottles at their houses. The results showed that moisture content increased in all
samples from approximately 1% to 3.2-4.4% after storage for 9 days. Acidity increased
considerably from 0.14% to 0.2%.
The results showed that peroxide value passed the allowable limits (0.25) and
reached about (0.47) in samples stored for 9 days at room temperature. However, the value
for samples stored in the refrigerator ranged between (0.25-0.29). The free acidity number
of fat for all samples specially the refrigerated ones was within the natural limits (<0.5).
Chromatographic analyses showed apparent differences in fatty acid percentages between
the kinds of milk. The rate of lenoleic acid (C 18-2 ) decreased during storage in all samples
and in all conditions.
Soluble nitrogen increased in all samples at the end of storage and the highest value
was 0.49% in Nido milk samples. The solubility of milk samples was checked during
storage and was found to decrease very little ( 1%).
The total count of aerobic bacteria showed that all samples conform to the Syrian
standards (No. 197, 1996) during the first six days of storage, but they passed the upper
limits at the end of storage. However, all samples were free of pathogenic microbes .
The objective of this research to study the chemical composition and microbial load
for some types of pies by performing various chemical and microbial analysis of samples
collected, from different parts of the Syrian coast which are famous for its
production.
This study showed a large variation in the chemical composition of samples by type
of the pastry and place brought from, for example, the proportion of dry matter for peppers
and chard pies collected from Banias was, 75.71% and 44.90%, respectively, and the
percentage of dry matter was 73.88% and 76.18% and the proportion of protein was,
17.76% and 24 .88% for cheese pies collected from Tartous and Latakia 1, respectively.
This study indicated that all the pies contain a high percentage of fat [the lowest in chard
pies (17.64%) and the highest in cheese pies (38.12%)]. Furthermore a high percentage of
sodium was found (the highest in cheese pies 15.31 mg / 100 g and lowest in pepper pies
7.82 mg / 100 g).
The study also showed that these meals meet international standards in terms of
content of lead, cadmium, Nevertheless they are poor in fiber content except for chard pies
which were the most balanced in terms of components, making it the best type of pies in
nutritional aspect.
Finally, the results showed that the microbial load was too high, as the total census of
bacteria was higher than 105 and the total census of yeasts and fungi was higher than 102.
In addition, all pies are not conformed to the Syrian legislation. The study also showed
absence of E.coli and St. aureus of all samples.
