Physicochemical Characterization and Classification of Cheese Types in Kosovo: Implications for Agricultural Marketing, Product Differentiation and Food Economics

Cheese is an essential traditional dairy product in Kosovo, and there is substantial diversity in milk sources, production systems, and physicochemical properties. The objective of the current study was to characterize and classify types of cheeses produced in Kosovo according to their physicochemical properties and explore their discrimination by using multivariate statistical analysis methods. In the current study, 117 samples of cheese were selected from the major cheese-producing areas of Kosovo and were grouped into four categories, namely soft, semi-soft, semi-hard, and hard cheeses, mostly based on moisture. Moisture, fat, protein, pH, and salt contents were determined using appropriate analyses. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, ANOVA, PCA, hierarchical cluster analysis, and discriminant analysis were performed. However, there was a significant difference in the physicochemical features between the four groups. PCA demonstrated that there is a compositional gradient for the various types of cheese. This gradient was mainly due to the variations in moisture, fat in dry matter, and protein. From the pattern of sample distribution, these physicochemical properties greatly affected the classification of soft, semi-soft, semi-hard, and hard cheeses. In general, the results obtained serve as preliminary proof of diversity in physicochemical characteristics of cheeses from Kosovo.