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Structure of Dairy Products SOCIETY OF DAIRY TECHNOLOGY SERIES Edited by A. Y. Tamime The Society of Dairy Technology (SDT) has joined with Blackwell Publishing to produce a series of technical dairy-related handbooks providing an invaluable resource for all those involved in the dairy industry; from practitioners to technologists working in both traditional and modern large-scale dairy operations. The previous 30 years have witnessed great interest in the microstructure of dairy products, which has a vital bearing on, e.g. texture, sensory qualities, shelf life and packaging requirements of dairy foods. During the same period, new techniques have been developed to visualise clearly the properties of these products. Hence, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) have been used as complimentary methods in quality appraisal of dairy products, and are used for product development and in trouble shooting wherever faults arise during manufacturing. Structure of Dairy Products, an excellent new addition to the increasingly well-known and respected SDT series, offers the reader: • information of importance in product development and quality control • internationally known contributing authors and book editor • thorough coverage of all major aspects of the subject • core, commercially useful knowledge for the dairy industry Edited by Adnan Tamime, with contributions from international authors, this book is an essential purchase for dairy scientists and technologists, food scientists and technologists, food chemists, physicists, rheologists and microscopists. Libraries in all universities and research establishments teaching and researching in these areas should have copies of this important work on their shelves.

Milk is nature's most complete food, and dairy products are considered to be the most nutritious foods of all.The traditional view of the role of milk has been greatly expanded in recent years beyond the horizon of nutritional subsistence of infants: it is now recognized to be more than a source of nutrients for the healthy growth of children and.

Cereals are generally known to have a positive influence on the general state of the human organism. The attention of the nutritional experts is paid especially to oats and barley. Besides their accessibility, these cereals are interesting due to their relatively high contents of soluble non-starch polysaccharides (fibrous material), out of which beta-glucans have a dominant position from the aspect of health benefit. This paper presents a brief review of the latest knowledge on the positive effects of beta-glucans on the consumer's health. The structure, occurrence, sources, and positive physiological effects of beta-glucans on the cardiovascular system but also their antibacterial, antitumoral, immunomodulant, and radioprotective properties are mentioned. In the paper are given examples of beta-glucans exploitation as functional ingredients in food, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical industries and as food additives on the basis of cereal fibres and cereal beta-glucans.

This review deals with recent articles on various fluorescence techniques (conventional, excitation-emission matrix, and synchronous fluorescence spectroscopy) as a tool for the classification of food samples. Chemometric methods as principal component analysis, hierarchical cluster analysis, parallel factor analysis, and factorial discriminate analysis are briefly reminded. The respective publications are then listed according to the food samples as follows: dairy products, eggs, meat, fish, edible oils, and others.

Milk is a complex physiological liquid that simultaneously provides nutrients and bioactive components that facilitate the successful postnatal adaptation of the newborn infant by stimulating cellular growth and digestive maturation, the establishment of symbiotic microflora, and the development of gut-associated lymphoid tissues. The number, the potency, and the importance of bioactive compounds in milk and especially in fermented milk products are probably greater than previously thought. They include certain vitamins, specific proteins, bioactive peptides, oligosaccharides, organic (including fatty) acids. Some of them are normal milk components, others emerge during digestive or fermentation processes. Fermented dairy products and probiotic bacteria decrease the absorption of cholesterol. Whey proteins, medium-chain fatty acids, and in particular calcium and other minerals may contribute to the beneficial effect of dairy food on body fat and body mass. There has been growing evidence of the role that dairy proteins play in the regulation of satiety, food intake and obesity-related metabolic disorders. Milk proteins, peptides, probiotic lactic acid bacteria, calcium and other minerals can significantly reduce blood pressure. Milk fat contains a number of components having functional properties. Sphingolipids and their active metabolites may exert antimicrobial effects either directly or upon digestion.

A collection of 250 enterococci isolated from various food-stuffs were used to investigate seven virulence determinants and the microbial susceptibility of eight antibiotics. Species-specific PCR revealed the presence of E. faecalis (127 isolates), E. faecium (77 isolates), E. casseliflavus (21 isolates), E. mundtii (19 isolates) and E. durans (6 isolates). Multiplex PCR for virulence factors showed that out of the 250 isolates tested, 221 carried one or more virulence-encoding genes. Beta-haemolytic activity was also evident in enterococcal species other than E. faecalis and E. faecium. Species other than E. faecalis and E. faecium isolated from food may also be virulent. Antimicrobial susceptibility was tested using the disk diffusion method. It showed that out of 250 isolates, 114 were resistant to cephalothin and 94 to ofloxacin. Lower antibiotic resistance was seen with ampicillin, chloramphenicol, gentamicin and teicoplanin. None of the isolates was found to be resistant to vancomycin. The results of this study show that food can play an important role in the spread of virulent enterococci through the food chain.

Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) is the etiologic agent of paratuberculosis, a disease with considerable economic impact, principally on dairy cattle herds. Animals with paratuberculosis shed viable MAP especially in their milk, faeces and semen. MAP may have a role in the development of Crohn's disease in humans via the consumption of contaminated milk and milk products. The current methods of milk pasteurization are not sufficient to kill all MAP cells present in milk and MAP has been cultured from raw or pasteurized milk and isolated from cheese. The purpose of the present study was to review the different methods used for detection of MAP in milk and milk products. We analyze the current methods for direct or indirect identification of MAP and culture and molecular biology methods that can be applied to milk and milk products.

Enterococci are ubiquitous bacteria which frequently occur in large numbers in dairy and other food products. Although they share a number of biotechnological traits (e.g., bacteriocin production, probiotic characteristics, usefulness in dairy technology), there is no consensus on whether enterococci pose a threat as foodborne pathogens. The potential pathogenicity of lactic acid bacteria (LAB), including enterococci, in human clinical infections and their association with endocarditis have recently become a matter of controversy, in spite of the fact that foods containing enterococci have a long history of safe use. This article provides literature data available on microbial ecology, biochemical properties, production of anti-Listeria bacteriocins, and potential pathogenic traits of enterococci isolated from different dairy products

Whey proteins are an important constituent of milk, especially whey from cheese manufacture and have many valuable functional properties such as foaming and emulsifying ability or gel formation. Some whey proteins are sensitive to salt content in a solution. High or low salt content may lead to selective coagulation of these proteins. A part of whey proteins was precipitated by addition of 7% (wt) NaCl and beta-lactoglobulin and caseinomacropeptide remained in the supernatant. It was necessary to demineralise the supernatant by electrodialysis for the selective coagulation of caseinomacropeptide from this material. Subsequently, ethanol was added and pH was adjusted. This reduction of the ionic strength and the addition of ethanol induced the selective precipitation of caseinomacropeptide (91.4% from the original amount of CMP). beta-lactoglobulin of 91% purity remained in the solution.

The aim of this study was to determine both the occurrence and the genetic basis of resistance to erythromycin among 1,235 Staphylococcus spp. isolates obtained between 2000 and 2006 from (a) raw milk and meat (1,704 samples), (b) foodstuffs produced from these (451 samples), and (c) contact surfaces at processing plants and dairy farms (363 samples) in the Czech Republic. Isolates were screened by broth microdilution method for resistance to erythromycin and further 11 antimicrobial agents. In addition, isolates were screened by agar dilution (erythromycin range 1-128 mg/L) and D-zone test for inducible resistance to macrolides, lincosamides and streptogramin B (iMLSB). Forty isolates were found to be either resistant or intermediate to erythromycin; of these, more than 50% were identified as S. epidermidis. A total of 15 resistant isolates of staphylococci originated from foodstuffs. Resistance mediated by methylation - i.e. iMLSB-resistance (10 isolates with the erm(A) or erm (C) gene) and constitutive MLSB-resistance (one isolate with the erm (B) and erm (C) genes) - exhibited a significantly high level of resistance to erythromycin. In contrast, the efflux mechanism encoded by the msr(A) gene, the inactivation mechanisms of resistance encoded by the mph(C) gene and/or their combination led to lower MIC values. The efflux gene (A) dominated among the erythromycin-resistant isolates (65% of resistant isolates). This first report on the resistance of Staphylococcus spp. to erythromycin in the Czech Republic illustrates that, while occurrence was low, isolates from food were nevertheless carriers of erm (A), erm (B), erm (C), msr(A) and mph(C) genes for resistance to erythromycin and, therefore, represent a potential thread to humans.