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Cheese is a highly valued dairy product worldwide, with a special focus on traditional cheeses, not only for their basic nutritive purposes but also as a part of the culture and characteristics of a certain country. Owing to the geographical location as well as the climate and vegetation diversity, in certain regions of Croatia the production of various traditional cheeses using spices was developed. Spices are either added to the cheese curd which is then formed, or cheese is wrapped into plant leaves. Sometimes spices are also applied onto the surface of the cheese, and only in rare cases spices are added into the curd. Spices added to cheese improve sensory characteristics, increase the stability and shelf life but also increase the nutritional value. The chemical composition of spices is very complex and every spice has a specific and dominant ingredient that contributes to the flavour of the product and/or its antimicrobial and antioxidant activity. This paper provides an overview of spices and aromatic herbs as natural preservatives that are used in the production of traditional cheeses.

The purpose of this research was to determine whether the cream cheese and cream that are produced in the traditional manner at home and are free to sale on Zagreb markets, meet microbiological requirements for foodstuffs (OG 46/94, 20/01, 40/01). Particular attention is given to research of bacteria Listeria monocytogenes presence in these foods, because of its exceptional hazards to human health. It was found that a majority of 64 (53 %) from a total of 120 studied dairy products samples were contaminated with microbial pathogens, of which 16 % are waste in the cream cheese, and 37 % in cream samples. 39 samples of cheese and 50 samples of cream did not fulfil the conditions prescribed by the Croatian Guidelines, primarily due to the contamination with yeasts and moulds. In 10 cheese and cream samples where L. monocytogenes is proven by classical microbiological methods, PCR method confirmed L. monocytogenes in only one cream sample.

Electronic nose (e-nose) and electronic tongue (e-tongue) instrumental systems were designed to crudely mimic human olfactory and taste sensory organs and are composed of an array of sensors. Complex data sets from electronic nose and electronic tongue signals combined with multivariate statistics represent rapid and efficient tools for classification, discrimination, recognition and identification of samples, as well as for the prediction of concentrations of different compounds. A wide variety of sensors can be employed into the design of these instrumental systems, especially that of electronic tongues, offering numerous practical applications. In this study, characteristics of sensors and possibilities of electronic nose and electronic tongue applications in the dairy industry were reviewed.

Minerals occur in all foodstuffs as well as in milk and dairy products. The mineral content in milk is influenced by many factors ranging from environmental conditions during pasture, feeding, breeding, stage of lactation and climate to post-milking handling, transportation and processing. The aim of the study was to assess whether the intakes comply with Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA), Adequate Intakes (AIs) or Tolerable Upper Intake Levels (ULs) for essential elements. Milk samples from different producers and with different fat content were purchased from Zagreb’s market four times in year 2007 and analysed. Concentrations of ten minerals (Ca, P, Mg, Fe, Cu, Zn, Mn, Ni, K and Na) were determined by atomic absorption spectrometry. Mean values of mineral contents were in range with the literature data. The daily intakes of these minerals by school children selected in age-gender groups (school children 8-9 years old and adolescents 15-18 years old) through milk consumption were also estimated. The average daily intake of essential minerals ranged from a minimum of 1.36 % of manganese up to 35.27 for phosphorus, irrespective of age and gender of children.

The aim of this research was to establish the state of infant nutrition mode in Croatia, with special regard to nutrition quality parameter protein efficiency ratio (PER) of the most used infant formulas. Methods included dietetic survey (n=255 mothers of infants) in urban area and PER (protein efficiency ratio) determination in vivo by rats and infants for the most used infant formulas in Croatian market. Results of dietetic survey showed that almost half of examinees (49.4 %) claim that their infants are exclusively breastfed. Significant amount of examinees (33.3 %) used mixed breast-and-formula feed for their infants. There are also 17.3 % mothers whose infants are exclusively formula fed. According to PER values in infants, Samples 1-4 had very similar quality (PER 2.01-2.36). PER values in rats varied from 1.34 to 3.36. In spite of different PER values for infants and rats, these differences are not statistically significant (p

The concept of electronic tongue or taste sensor has been developed rapidly in the last decade due to their large potential in food quality control. The electronic tongue is based on electrochemical sensors combined with multivariate data analysis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the discriminating ability of the electronic tongue for the recognition of different milk and yoghurt samples from different producers and various dairy products from one producer. The results were evaluated by multivariate data analysis - Principal components analysis. The electronic tongue α-ASTREE (Alpha M.O.S) has successfully distinguished five brands of milk purchased on the Croatian market, five brands of yoghurt also purchased on Croatian market and differentiated among various products from one dairy producer.