Анотация: Meat and cheese samples, artificially contaminated by three bacterial species: Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus were investigated by both microbiology and near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). The incubation of samples at 8 рС for 14 days did not result in significant increase in the number of inoculated microorganisms. During the entire experimental period, microbial counts remained within 101Ц103 CFU/g product. Regardless of the low bacterial contamination, NIRS analysis has successfully distinguished the contaminated samples by the SIMCA model and exhibited specific spectral differences that could be used to differentiate the specific classes according to the bacterial species