Zlatar cheese: Characteristics of traditional production and overview of some quality parameters

In parallel with the industrialization and standardization of contemporary production, cheese production based on traditional principles represents an important attribute of a nation, state or region. Awareness of the specificities of these production characteristics is supported by the growing demand for organic and high quality food with geographic labels of origin, whose competitiveness and price daily increase in comparison with conventional products. In the mountainous territory of the Republic of Serbia, in the region of Nova Varos, on the foothills and slopes of Mount Zlatar, rural households produce cheeses in brine in keeping with autochthonous traditional technology. These cheeses are recognized for their constant quality, remarkable flavour, and unique manner of production. This paper introduces a part of the planned research within Project III 46 009 (subproject 7), which aim to provide answers about the biodiversity of indigenous microflora originating from Zlatar cheese, to determine their most important technological and protective properties, and to provide answers about the possibilities of implementing some of the isolated Lstrains in a new production cycle. Most of the above research is ongoing. This paper summarizes the traditional production of Zlatar cheese based on the monitoring of the production process and interviewes with individual producers in the area around Nova Varos, in the villages Akmačići, Božetići, Jasenovo, Bukovik, Komarani. Also, there is a review of the most important chemical parameters of quality. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 46009