Occurrence of staphylococcus aureus in milk based sweet products consumed in Karachi,Pakistan

A total of 290 samples of milk-based products of khoya (75),qalaqand (75),rahri (65) and rusmalai (75) were tested for occurrence of staphylococcus aureus. the total staphylococcal counts ranged from 1.0×103 to 5.7×104 cfu/g,1.0×102 to 6.0×10 3 cfu/g,1.0×103 to 3.1×104 cfu/g and 1.3×103 to 4.0×103 cfu/g in khoya,qalaqand,rabri and rusmalai samples,respectively. all the samples tested were found contaminated with staphylococci,however,the percentage of s. aureus was low as compared to coagulaseve staphylococci. only 6.7% of rusmalai samples (only 1.72% of all the samples tested) were found free of coagulase +ve s. aureus. about 8% of khoya (6 out of 75),28% of qalaqand (2lout of 75),and 40% of rabri (26 out of 65) samples were found to be hazardous for human health as they contained coagulase +ve s. aureus whereas,none of the rusmalai samples was found contaminated with coagulase +ve s. aureus.