This Brief presents a chemical perspective on frozen vegetables, also known as "ready-to-use" foods. It elucidates the chemical properties and modifications of vegetables from harvest and treatment to the end of their long shelf-life. Particular attention is given to the microbiological colonization of vegetables during the freezing treatments and to the chemical and physical modifications associated. The authors explore the undesired effects of this colonization through the lens of the antibiotic-resistant Staphylococci found in hermetically-package frozen vegetables. With this informative and instructive Brief, readers will understand the importance of the frozen storage technologies.

This Brief explores the chemistry and production technology of a cheese precursor: the cow's milk curd. It explains how different coagulation and treatment methods can be used to obtain various types of cheeses. Parameters such as the type of used milk, the coagulation method, pH value, color, and microbial fermentation have a profound impact on the resulting curd properties, and hence on the cheese. The authors discuss some of the most important parameters, and how their modification can lead to a variety of cheese and dairy products. This Brief also addresses the question, if cheese makers can standardize their production procedures, and what role chemistry may play in that. Another important point addressed here are the sources of failures in the curd production, e.g. in packaging systems. Readers will find selected examples of helpful analytical techniques for studying and evaluating curd quality, and for monitoring the chemical evolution of selected chemical substances or protein aggregation.

This Brief is concerned with the connection between food packaging and the chemical composition of packaging materials. In terms of the food packaging hygiene, the influence of the containers on the contained foods is discussed. The book explores new and emerging risks related to food packaging materials in connection with the contained commodities. It also discusses the technology of production with relation to the chemical risk in a "Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point" (HACCP) investigation.

This book discusses numerous problems occurring in relation to microbiological quality of lactic acid cheese. Lactic acid cheese constitutes the source of various nutritive substances, which results in a possibility of allochthonous micro-flora to grow despite the presence of starter micro-flora. One of the issues discussed herein comprised the results of microbiological research depending on tvarog packing system. The influence of the packing system on surface micro-flora population was assessed. Moreover, the problem of growth of enterococci and LAB (Lactic Acid Bacteria) populations depending on stage of tvarog production as well as the packing system are also raised. The issue of interactions occurring among micro-organisms that re-infect tvarogs and the influence of these interactions on the growth of individual micro-organisms was also discussed. The author presents also the possibility to apply JMTPH computer program for assessment of the dynamics of changes of tvarog micro-organisms during product storage. Another chapter includes assessment of the influence of lactic acid bacteria on the behaviour of individual groups of micro-organisms occupying tvarog surface, depending on packaging hermetic properties. It was also very important to assess the safety of tvarogs in the context of a possibility of enterotoxin synthesis in conditions of various packing systems.