# Assessment of Quality and Safety of Farm Level Produced Cheeses from Sheep and Goat Milk
## 3 Results  
### Milk Quality and Safety  
3.1.1. Physical and Chemical Indicators  
The season of production significantly affected all quality traits of milk. The mean value and standard deviation of the selected physical and chemical parameters of sheep and goat milk are summarized in Tables 1 and 2. In sheep milk, the month of milking significantly affected all quality traits of analyzed milk (Table 1). The content of fat and solids non-fat increased with the time of lactation (\(p<0.001\)). The highest increase was recorded for fat and solids non-fat content, when fat content increased from April 5.63 \(\pm\) 0.92% to 9.01 \(\pm\) 0.72% in September and also solid non-fat increased to 13.21 \(\pm\) 0.38% in September compared to 8.88 \(\pm\) 0.37% in April (Table 1). Protein concentration in sheep milk, as well as fat and SNF, rose during the lactation period (\(p<0.001\)). However, the content of lactose was the lowest at the end of lactation in September (\(p<0.001\)). Density of sheep milk was the lowest in May 1033.17 \(\pm\) 0.27 g/L and the highest in September 1034.48 \(\pm\) 0.39 g/L. The increasing of density and decreasing of lactose in our study is also related to high somatic cell count. The presence of added water was not detected in any of sheep milk samples. The months of milking affected acidity of sheep milk (\(p<0.001\)). The results of detection of pH through the whole period did not showed any significant change (\(p>0.05\)). Chemical composition and physical characteristics of goat milk analyses (Table 2) show significant changes in fat content, especially between June and September (\(p<0.001\)). For the fat indicator, there was a relation between the quantity of fat with individual months of milking. Milk in the last month and in the first month of lactation had a higher \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c} \hline  & **April** & **May** & **June** & **July** & **August** & **September** & \(p\)**Value** \\ \hline Fat (\%) & 5.63 \(\pm\) 0.92 \({}^{\rm c}\) & 5.94 \(\pm\) 0.98 \({}^{\rm c}\) & 7.81 \(\pm\) 0.60 \({}^{\rm b}\) & 8.62 \(\pm\) 0.96 \({}^{\rm a}\) & 8.77 \(\pm\) 0.77 \({}^{\rm a}\) & 9.01 \(\pm\) 0.72 \({}^{\rm a}\) & \(<\)0.001 \\ Protein (\%) & 5.23 \(\pm\) 0.56 \({}^{\rm a}\) & 5.67 \(\pm\) 0.26 \({}^{\rm d}\) & 5.97 \(\pm\) 0.94 \({}^{\rm c}\) & 6.27 \(\pm\) 0.63 \({}^{\rm c}\) & 6.98 \(\pm\) 0.44 \({}^{\rm b}\) & 7.46 \(\pm\) 0.29 \({}^{\rm a}\) & \(<\)0.001 \\ Lactose (\%) & 4.96 \(\pm\) 0.79 \({}^{\rm a}\) & 4.57 \(\pm\) 0.30 \({}^{\rm b}\) & 4.44 \(\pm\) 0.35 \({}^{\rm bc}\) & 4.15 \(\pm\) 0.47 \({}^{\rm c}\) & 4.01 \(\pm\) 0.41 \({}^{\rm d}\) & 3.92 \(\pm\) 0.54 \({}^{\rm d}\) & \(<\)0.001 \\ SNF (\%) & 8.88 \(\pm\) 0.37 \({}^{\rm f}\) & 9.50 \(\pm\) 0.29 \({}^{\rm e}\) & 10.99 \(\pm\) 0.49 & & & & \\  & & & & & & & \\ Density & 1033.37 \(\pm\) & 1033.17 \(\pm\) & 1033.49 \(\pm\) & 1034.38 \(\pm\) & 1034.26 \(\pm\) & 1034.48 \(\pm\) & \\ (g/L) & 0.33 \({}^{\rm c}\) & 0.27 \({}^{\rm d}\) & 0.17 \({}^{\rm c}\) & 0.28 \({}^{\rm ab}\) & 0.22 \({}^{\rm b}\) & 0.39 \({}^{\rm a}\) & \(<\)0.001 \\ Ad\({}_{w}\) & 0.00 & 0.00 & 0.00 & 0.00 & 0.00 & 0.00 & \(>\)0.05 \\ Acidity (\({}^{\rm c}\)SH) & 9.66 \(\pm\) 0.33 \({}^{\rm b}\) & 9.74 \(\pm\) 0.36 \({}^{\rm b}\) & 10.33 \(\pm\) 0.34 \({}^{\rm a}\) & 10.42 \(\pm\) 0.30 \({}^{\rm a}\) & 10.45 \(\pm\) 0.33 \({}^{\rm a}\) & 9.88 \(\pm\) 0.43 \({}^{\rm b}\) & \(<\)0.001 \\ pH & 6.65 \(\pm\) 0.34 & 6.65 \(\pm\) 0.38 & 6.67 \(\pm\) 0.42 & 6.71 \(\pm\) 0.64 & 6.74 \(\pm\) 0.59 & 6.72 \(\pm\) 0.46 & \(>\)0.05 \\ \hline \end{tabular} \({}^{\rm a,b,c,d,e}\)—Means within a row different superscript differ (\(p<0.05\)).  
\end{table} 
Table 1: Means and their standard deviations (SD) of the physical and chemical indicators of sheep’s milk depending on the month of milking.