Introduction. Milk is one of the most important economies of the country. In 2002, milk contained 20% of the total value of agricultural economy products, and more than 30% of the total value of export of agricultural economy and alimentary products. Milk is going to stay the underlying branch of agricultural economy in the future. Today, 95.5 % of all Lithuanian farms have 1-4 cows. These farms contain 74.7% of the total number of cows. This producer group is the biggest and most problematic, because its contribution to production of milk is very important. It is important to emphasize, that pensioners contain 45% of milker holders. Objective of the study. The aim of this master‘s paper is to analyze the composition of Lithuania‘s recast companies according to the data taken from state lab Pieno Tyrimai of procurement raw milk. This paper will also analyze the dynamic of the most important quality parameters including: domain, season, the number of milk providers and the number of tested milk samples. Materials ant methods. In this master‘s paper the quality and the consistency of raw milk were analyzed according to parameters set by the state lab „Pieno tyrimai“. The subjects of research were the quality and composition data of 2002-2004 year samples of raw milk. Tendencies of resources of raw milk were analyzed according to the newest statutory requirements in Lithuania and in compliance with the main EU legislation. Findings. According to the analyses of the... [to full text]

The microbiological quality of raw milk from the perspective of the health of dairy products is one of the most important features. The amount of microorganisms is influenced by storage temperature and time of milk. In the thesis was observed dynamics of total bacteria count (TBC) in raw milk depending on the selected factors (months, seasons, point of collection, the length of storage). To life of microorganisms contributes warm weather. The largest increase in TBC was observed in the months of April and May to 108 thousand /1 Ml. It is necessary to place great emphasis on rapid cooling of milk (max 150 min.) to the desired temperature (8 °C). Increase TBC could be caused by long transportation time of sampling raw milk from a milk vending machine to evaluate the quality and microbiological indicators. In the second part of the thesis are compares the quality and microbiological characteristics of raw milk from selected milk vending machines. When evaluating the samples taken from the farm, average values of TBC were higher (43 thousand/ml) compared to samples collected from the milk vending machines (6 thousand/ml). Reason of higher values from farms could be caused by poor hygiene of the milk and his secondary contaminations. In contrast, the average results from samples taken from the milk vending machines were more than excellent. That´s shows tight control of cooling milk during transportation from the farm to the milk vending machine. Next reason better results is right cooling and to maintain a constant temperature in the grades (from 0.5 to 1 °C). That´s temperature, which prevents the growth of microorganisms.

Graduation theses were inquired into question of presence of total bacteria count (TBC) in four selected cattle-raising. The breeds differ from each other with technology of lairege and milking, predipping, grazing and herd size. The first was lairage in stanction housing and in-stall milking pipeline system and embodied average values TBC from 10 {$\bullet$} 103 {$\bullet$} ml-1 till 179 {$\bullet$} 103 {$\bullet$} ml-1. The second breed was lairaged in loose grate without littered housing and got milking parlour and embodied average values TBC from 5,5 {$\bullet$} 103 {$\bullet$} ml-1 till 68,75 {$\bullet$} 103 {$\bullet$} ml-1.The third and the fourth breeds were lairaged in loose cubicle littered housing and got milking parlour and embodied average values TBC from 5 {$\bullet$} 103 {$\bullet$} ml-1 till 34,33 {$\bullet$} 103 {$\bullet$} ml-1. There was not statically conclusive difference in analysis of total bacteria count on level - significance P < 0,05 between lairage in stanction littered housing and in-stall milking pipeline system and lairage in loose cubicle littered housing and milking parlour and lairage in loose cubicle littered housing and milking parlour, when the Students test was used. The stud with lairage in loose grate without littered housing and milking parlour had the top microbial contaminaton of milk. It had serious defections of hygiene lairage and milking. It succeeded to significant differences in value TBC in bulk milk sample on level - significance P < 0,05.

Raw milk is one of the most monitored product not only in terms of microbial, but also in terms of technology, chemistry and sensory. The aim of the thesis was the examination of the influence of cold chain interruptions on dynamic of total bacteria count (TBC) in raw cow milk. The results show that the temperature and time have a significant impact on TBC. The samples stored during the first three hours of experiment at 15 °C showed (in time 0 - 27 hours) a continuous growth with changing dynamic (5.13, 6.66, resp. log CFU/ml). The samples stored at 30 °C showed a significant increase, however there was a decrease between an hour of 25th and 26th (6.88, 6.69, resp. log CFU/ml). An hour later another increase was found (to 7.37 log CFU/ml). The samples stored at 6 °C showed the lowest values of TBC, although an increase was found after 24 hours (5.87 log CFU/ml). The second part of the thesis was an evaluation of the questionnaire survey among people consuming raw cow milk from a vending machine. The survey showed that more than a half of respondents (88%) interrupt the cold chain for no more than an hour. Then it was found that 75% of respondents do not overcook raw milk. The consumers appreciate the taste of raw milk (35%), freshness (19%), quality (16%), and a nutritional value (12%).