Evaluation of the quality of some assortments of milk and dairy products marketed in Iasi county

Abstract

The complexity of the composition of the food products and the diversity of the qualitative characteristics that must be followed in order to define the quality determine the use of appropriate methods of analysis, of those methods that best reflect the concept of quality.The quality of a product is possible provided that both domestic and international standards are respected, and quality assurance must comply with the requirements of the European Union. The investigations regarding the quality of milk and some dairy products marketed in Iasi county were carried out in the period 2018-2019, on samples collected from the commercial network of Iasi county. The collected samples were pasteurized milk 3.5% G, pasteurized milk 1.5% G, UHT milk 3.5% G and UHT milk 1.5% G. Samples of acid dairy products, namely yogurt, kefir, healthy and fermented cream samples with 12% G, 20% G and 32% G were also taken. The investigations focused on these dairy products taking into account the consumer's requirements and the significant increase in consumption of these products, representing in the diet of people products that are frequently purchased and consumed in a fairly short time. The investigations were carried out to establish the degree of freshness, integrity and we determined a series of physico-chemical parameters of dairy products. The processing of the samples was done in the Food Control Laboratory of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine Iași, where a number of 28 milk samples, 30 samples of acid dairy products and 30 tests of fermented cream were processed. Following the analysis of the samples, a number of 18 milk were physically and chemically non- conforming, and all the examined samples were organoleptic conforming. When examining the samples of acid dairy products a number of 25 samples were non-conforming for the physico-chemical parameters, and organoleptic 8 samples were non-conforming. The determination of the physical and chemical parameters at the cream revealed a total of 17 non-conforming samples and 8 organoleptic samples were non- conforming.