Differences between organic and conventional ewe's milk cheese during the ripening process

Previous studies have shown that fat macroelements in milk were unaffected by the change of production system from conventional to organic however the fatty acid composition and microelements are affected. Since sheep's milk is used for the production of cheese and there are no references about it, the aim of this work was to study the evolution of physico-chemical, colour and textural characteristic of ewe's milk cheese of two breeds during the ripening process and to determine the influence of production system organic vs conventional on them. Results showed that freshly made organic cheese had higher values of dry extract, fat acidity, hardness and yellow colour and lower values of pH. At the end of the maturation these cheese maintained higher values of fat acidity and were yellower and darker than conventional ones.