Milk and cheese were recognized as are highly nutritional values food due to high content of protein, fat and minerals that include (calcium, phosphorus, iron, and vitamins). Accidental contamination of food through the handlers could be resulted in the presence of many kinds of bacteria especially Staphylococcus aureus in the dairy products. Therefore, the aim of this study was to study variation in bacterial isolation percentage as well as the bacterial counts in raw milk and locally produced soft cheese in local markets in Baghdad. A total of 150 samples from raw milk and local soft cheese (75 for each) were collected from different regions of Baghdad city from October 2020 till July 2021 to study the evaluation of bacterial contamination. The isolation percentage of total coliform, Fecal coliform, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcusaureus in the raw milk were 82, 69, 54 and 42%, respectively. While in the soft cheese the isolation percentage for coliform, Fecal coliform, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcusaureus were 90, 74, 60 and 45% respectively. Furthermore, the high percentages of bacterial isolation were recorded during summer. The recorded data showed significant (P<0.05) variation for both raw milk and soft cheese according to months and soft cheese had higher isolation percentage than the raw milk samples significantly. The average values of bacterial count values that were isolated from October to February in the raw milk of the total coliform, fecal coliform, E. coli and Staphaureus were 5.57, 4.25, 3.77 and 2.94 cfulog10/mL respectively, which were recorded during the cold months. While the recording of the average values from March to July as hot months were 6.02, 5.02, 5.22 and 3.23 cfulog10/ mL respectively. The average of bacterial values in the soft cheese were 6.02, 5.03, 4.97 and 3.67cfu log10 /g respectively from October to February and were significantly (P<0.05) less than the summer from March to July which recorded 7.17, 6.32, 5.01 and 4.15cfu log10/g respectively. |