Mediterranean dairy sheep and goat products and their quality. A critical review.

Sheep and goat edible products (mainly meat and dairy products) have interesting characteristics in their levels of flavour, taste, aromas and leanness as well as the specific composition of fats, proteins, amino and fatty acids. Their quality is very much linked to historical and cultural uniqueness right through the production, marketing and consumption chains. This refers, at least in the Mediterranean region, to farming systems with dominant extensive grazing situations, specific technologies and conditions for slaughtering as well as for the transformation processes of cheese-making and its maturing; they are also characterised by traditional nutritional habits of the consumers. While the organoleptic properties of the dairy products are very important, the sanitary aspects become more and more influential and tend to modify the accepted definitions of these products and their quality (e.g. non-pasteurised milk, production chains, hygiene, transformation methodologies, etc.). Today there are major research efforts to ameliorate the production aspects but also the quality of the products; better cheese yield with the work undertaken on alpha-s1-casein, flavour and taste of cheeses is improved by the work on lipolysis and the study of the molecules responsible for the taste of the cheeses, studies on the fattening level of animals including genetic variability, and a better understanding of the fat distribution on carcasses. The future evolution of these products is difficult to foresee. Will quality be the criterion which will give the market direction in the developed countries (standardised products and top quality special products)? In the developing regions will we be able to maintain the actual production which is well adapted to the local demand or will this not be handicapped by the fragility and marginalisation of the existing livestock farming systems and untenable rises in costs?