Effect of somatic cell counts occurred in milk on quality of Slovak traditional cheese – Parenica

The aim of this work was to compare somatic cell count in milk used for making steamed cheese Parenica in Slovak industrial dairies and small farm dairies and to find out whether somatic cell counts in milk affect the dry matter content of Parenica cheese. The samples of raw milk were taken from 3 industrial dairies (A, B, C) and from 3 farm dairies (E, F, G), produced traditional Slovak cheese Parenica in period from January untill December 2018. The somatic cell count in milk was determined by FossomaticTM 5000 (Foss, Denmark) and dry matter of cheese by oven drying method to constant weight. There were no statistically significant differences (p >0.05) for somatic cell counts in milk processed in industrial and farm dairies. Lower somatic cell counts were determined in milk amples from industrial dairies (mean value 326.55 thousand in 1 mL) in comparison to milk samples from farm dairies (mean value 507.67 thousand in 1 mL). Statistically lower dry matter content (p <0.01) in the samples of Parenica cheese was found out in farm dairy E in comparison to other dairies. The relationship between somatic cell count in milk and dry matter in cheese was confirmed by the relatively low correlation coefficients in dairies, A = 0.22; C = 0.15 and F = -0.12 and higher correlation coefficients in dairies, B = -0.32; D = 0.45 and E = -0.48. Obtaining a more accurate effect of somatic cell count on cheese quality requires the continuation of the research on a larger number of samples and consideration of other factors.