Chintalapati, Priti2023-09-202023-09-202023https://hdl.handle.net/1813/113461Dairy products contribute to 17% of total waste generated at the consumer and retail levels, with microbial spoilage being a major factor. Cultured dairy products like yogurt, cream cheese, and buttermilk are produced through bacterial fermentation and are susceptible to contamination by spoilage microbes during processing and production. Spoilage can be influenced by intrinsic factors such as product pH and extrinsic factors like packaging type. In this study, I aimed to quantify the microbial load and identify fungal spoilage on recycled and non-recycled yogurt packaging. Four different yogurt container samples were tested, two were constructed using recycled packaging materials while the remaining two containers were made from non-recycled heavy-duty cardboard packaging materials. A total of 48 containers were processed; they were homogenized, plated on Malt Extract Agar (MEA) at different dilutions, and then incubated for 8-10 days at 77℉. Plate counts and descriptions of distinct morphologies for each sample were recorded. It was concluded that most samples showed low counts (~1 mold colony) at the lowest dilution factor (100) and yogurt containers made from recycled packaging materials exhibited a higher percentage of fungal contamination compared to non-recycled containers.Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internationaldissertation or thesis