ABSTRACT
Milk is an essential food, widely consumed by the population. Brazil is one of the world's largest producers of milk. Milk quality is influenced by several factors in all its stages of production. The aim of this study was to determine the microbiological profile of refrigerated and processed raw bovine milk from industries in Vale do Taquari, state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, using metagenomic analysis. A total of six samples were collected, one of refrigerated raw milk from the tanker truck, one of pasteurized milk and one of milk sterilized by the ultra-high temperature (UHT) process, in each of the industries. The identification of the milk microbiota was performed by sequencing the 16S rRNA gene. The results show that refrigerated raw milk has a greater number of microorganisms, followed by pasteurized milk and sterilized milk, successively. Processed milk showed the presence of beneficial microorganisms such as Streptococcus thermophilus and Streptococcus macedonicus. Nevertheless, even UHT milk showed the presence of microorganisms considered harmful, such as the Bacillus cereus group, Aeromonas dhakensis, Enterobacter bacterium and Acinetobacter haemolyticus. Metagenomics is a valuable tool for the thorough evaluation of the milk microbiota in order to implement the processing stages in industries.