Preliminary study of total phenolic content in traditional sheep cheese (Bieno Sirenje).

The presence of phenolic compounds in the milk and cheese is a result of their transfer from plant to milk and can affect their antioxidant activity. The objective of this work is to make a survey of the prevalence of the total phenolic compounds (TPC) in certain stages during cheese ripening as well as to determinate their final concentration in mature cheese. The obtained results show differences in the content of TPC between cheese samples from two batches (1 and 2). During the cheese ripening and after the dry salting and brining decreasing in the content of TPC has been noticed in both cheese batches. This is a result of number of chemical and enzymatic reactions as well as the high concentration of NaCl that inhibits the phenolic compounds to react with Folin reagent.