CHARACTERISTICS AND DESCRIPTION OF VORARLBERGER-BERGKASE .1. DATA-COLLECTION AND MICROBIOLOGY

The publication introduces to a series of papers, which aim to describ e Vorarlberger Bergkase, a regional Austrian hard cheese variety made from raw milk. During one year, a set of 141 Bergkase representing sim ilar to 0.2% of the total yearly outlet were sampled, and cheese-speci fic data were collected. Generally, viable counts of both surface and cheese mass showed a large variability. As examples, facultatively het erofermentative lactobacilli ranged between 3.0 x 10(5) and 5.8 x 10(7 ) cfu/g and exceeded the obligately heterofermentative group with >99% (geometric mean: 4.1 x 10(3) cfu/g). Additionally, enterococci and pr opionibacteria can be regarded as main components of the Bergkase flor a with viable counts ranging between 10(3) and similar to 6 x 10(7) cf u/g and between 2 x 10(5) and 6 x 10(8) cfu/g, respectively.