Impact on Human Health of Microorganisms Present in Fermented Dairy Products: An Overview

Table 1

Some examples of outbreaks caused by fermented dairy products and the pathogen involved.

Pathogen	Fermented dairy products	Outbreak details	Reference
Brucella	Pecorino cheese	7 cases. Made from raw milk and insufficiently aged.	[105]
Clostridium botulinum	Yoghurt	27 cases, 1 death. Insufficient processing of hazelnut conserve used as a flavour.	[106]
Listeria monocytogenes	Hard cheese	12 cases, 4 deaths. Postmanufacture contamination.	[107]
Salmonella	Hard cheese	Estimated 3000 cases. Cheese made from raw milk.	[108]
Staphylococcus aureus	Sheep milk cheese	25–27 cases. Raw milk used in production.	[109]
STECO157:H7	Gouda cheese	41 cases. Raw milk used to make cheese and numerous production/handling problems including insufficient ageing.	[110]
	Yoghurt	16 cases, 13 hospital admissions, 5 haemolytic uraemic syndrome. Possible improperly cleaned pump.	[111]

There are numerous other reports in the literature but many of them do not provide details on the dairy product involved. The table above includes data only for dairy products made with a starter culture. A more comprehensive list of outbreaks involving any kind of cheese is given elsewhere [112].