CHARACTERISTICS AND DESCRIPTION OF VORARLBERGER BERGKASE - 4 - COMPOSITION

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.