Nutritional Quality Assessment in Milk and Dairy Products: Second Edition

Dear Colleagues,

Recent years have seen growing awareness among consumers, accompanied by changes in their dietary preferences. Due to the growing incidence of diseases of civilization, interest in functional food is increasing, as is demand for low-processed food products. The latter are generally produced locally on a small scale (often using raw materials obtained from local animal breeds), using traditional processing methods. These products are distinguished by higher nutritional value and better sensory attributes than mass-produced food products. An increasing amount of food produced at small processing facilities, where the primary goal is high nutritional quality and health benefits, is appearing on the market.

Milk and dairy products are among the most important components of the human diet. No other food product is equal to milk in terms of nutritional value, and its composition is considered a physiological standard to which the nutrients supplied by other products and dishes are compared. Dairy products are a source of proteins of high biological quality, lipids, and carbohydrates (mainly lactose). Moreover, milk is a valuable source of bioactive substances with a beneficial effect on the human body, such as specific proteins, peptides, mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids, phospholipids, fat- and water-soluble vitamins, macro- and microelements, enzymes, and hormones. However, despite its many valuable nutrients and biologically active substances, milk also contains substances that can cause food intolerance, immunological (i.e., allergies) or non-immunological, causing gastrointestinal disorders.

The quality of milk is determined by numerous factors, which may be genetic (breed, species, and individual traits), physiological (health condition, including of the mammary gland, age, and stage of lactation), and environmental (diet, production season, housing conditions, and welfare). It should be remembered, however, that the quality of milk has a direct and crucial effect on the quality of dairy products, mainly cheese. In recent years, the advantages of traditional (including organic) feeding of dairy animals using pasture forage have been rediscovered. Pasture forage has a beneficial effect on the technological parameters and nutritional value of milk and on its content of functional components believed to have a beneficial effect on human health. In intensive systems, various feed additives in the diet of dairy animals have been shown to increase the nutritional value of milk. Another question that has taken on particular importance is animal welfare. With the intensification of milk production, animal welfare declines, and stress responses to various factors appear. Stressful conditions are known to adversely affect lactation and thus milk yield and quality, while also leading to reproductive disorders. This necessitates multifaceted monitoring of the quality of raw milk, which is crucial to the quality of finished dairy products.

Accurate verification of the quality of raw milk and dairy products requires a wide spectrum of analytical methods, including instrumental methods which are increasingly advanced and precise.

We are convinced that the proposed research problem concerning various factors determining the quality of milk and dairy products, as well as methods of assessing them, will expand the current state of knowledge in this field.
This is evidenced by all the publications selected for this Special Issue.

Dr. Aneta Brodziak
Prof. Dr. Joanna Barłowska
Guest Editors

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• milk
• various species of animals
• local breeds
• animal welfare
• production system
• dairy products
• regional products
• quality
• nutritional value
• technological suitability
• bioactive compounds
• methods of analysis

• Nutritional Quality Assessment in Milk and Dairy Products in Animals (10 articles)