The correlation between aerobic mesophilic microorganism counts and Dornic acidity in expressed human breastmilk.

OBJECTIVE The study was designed to test for the existence of a correlation between the total population of aerobic mesophilic microorganisms in processed raw breastmilk from a human milk bank and the Dornic acidity of that milk. METHODS Two hundred consecutive samples of thawed expressed human breastmilk obtained from human milk bank, prior to pasteurization. Dornic acidity was titrated in triplicate for each sample. Aerobic mesophilic microorganisms were then plate counted. Data were analyzed to detect correlations between variables, using Pearson's coefficient, and the level of significance was set at p < or = 0.05. RESULTS In the samples analyzed, Dornic acidity levels had a positive (R = 0.948) and statistically significant (p < or = 0.001) correlation with the population of aerobic mesophilic microorganisms (CFU/mL). CONCLUSIONS The data obtained here support to the conclusion that Dornic titration is an effective method for the indirect evaluation of bacterial growth in expressed human milk.