141 samples of Vorarlberger Bergkase, a regional Austrian hard cheese
variety made from raw milk, were evaluated with respect to chemical co
mposition. Whereas gross composition parameters, e.g., fat and dry mat
ter content, showed narrow distributions, a much higher variability wa
s observed for measures such as organic acid content. Apart from some
effects of cheese age and production period, analyses of variance show
ed differences between cheeses produced during summer on alp sites and
in valley plants in a number of parameters. These differences are int
erpreted in terms of site-specific technological conditions.