The chemical composition of organic and conventional milk in Latvia.

According to the data in literature, when changing the agricultural system, animal keeping conditions and feed composition, the content of the product are influenced to a great extent. Therefore the aim of the present study was to investigate the chemical composition of Latvian organic milk. A total 55 samples of raw organic milk, 20 of raw transitional period from conventional to organic agriculture, 20 of raw conventional milk samples were collected from different regions of Latvia. The mean content of protein, fat and lactose in organic milk was calculated and compared with the data from Latvia’s State Agency “Agricultural data centre”. The concentration of calcium, thiamine and riboflavin compared to conventional milk samples and the data from literature. The data was processed using the SPSS software package SPSS 11.0. and MS EXCEL. The content of fat (4.98±0.08%) and lactose (4.85±0.04%) in organic milk samples was significant higher (p<0.05). In 32% of organic milk samples the content of urea was for 29.6 mg kg lower than the minimum limit 150 mg kg. The content of thiamin in organic milk samples was significantly lower (p<0.05) in comparison with the data from literature and conventional milk. Statistically significant difference between the organic and conventional milk samples (p<0.05) was found in the content of riboflavin. The concentration of separate nutrients, as fat, lactose, thiamin and riboflavin in organic milk is significant different compared with conventional milk.