Mould contaminants on Jarlsberg and Norvegia cheese blocks from four factories

Visible mould from 225 blocks of the Norwegian semi-hard cheeses Jarlsberg and Norvegia from four factories were subcultured and identified. Altogether 23 different fungal species were detected. The two most important contaminating species were Penicillium commune and P. palitans, constituting 21.4% and 17.9% of the total isolates, respectively. The other dominating contaminants were P. roqueforit spp. roqueforti, Geotrichum candidum, P. solitum and P. crustosum. These species, together with P. commune and P. palitans, represented 80.9% of the total isolates. P. commune, P. palitans, P. roqueforti spp. roqueforti and P. solitum were most common contaminants on cheese produced in all four factories, while G. candidum was found to be important on Jarlsberg cheese from only one factory. P. crustosum was one of the dominating species on Norvegia cheese.