In fact, the highest rind contamination levels (2 and 3 log cfu g1) corresponded a high percentage of paste contamination after cutting. In particular, the highest number of contaminated paste samples, corresponding to 70.5% of the whole, was recovered for cheeses S60 and P80a, corresponding to the highest rind contamination levels. Absence of the pathogen was detected in the paste when the rind contamination level decreased to 1 log cfu g1 (Table 2). Lower L.monocytogenes rind contamination reflected a lower percentage of pathogen presence in the paste at the end of all of the cutting steps: 27.3% and 15.9% of the samples were contaminated after the cutting of cheeses S80 and P120, respectively, while L. monocytogenes was not detected in 25 g of cheese P80b.