Trnič is a traditional Slovenian dairy product from the group of cheeses, which used to be made by herdsmen on Velika planina, but today it is only made by few individuals. For the purpose of our thesis, we visited Mrs. Kropivšek, who generously showed us the technological process of trnič making. Trnič is made from soured and skimmed milk, where its peculiarity is the last phase of manufacture, which is the ripening phase for traditional rennet-coagulated cheeses, while for trnič it is more like drying than ripening phase. Our goal was to learn about technological procedure of trnič production, to analyse chemical structure and to determine sensory characteristics. Thus, in the framework of chemical analyses, we determined protein, fat, dry matter and salt content in trnič samples, dried for various lenght of time. The preparation of the nutritional table based on the results of analyzes of consumable mature trnič samples and which is achieved at one month of trnič drying. From the results of analyzes of dry matter determined by ISO 5433, and fats determined by the gravimetric method ISO 1735, we were able to determine the cheese type according to the water content or texture and cheese type according to fat content. It turned out that trnič belongs to the type of very hard grated cheeses and ¾ fat cheeses. The ISO 8968-3 method was used to determine the nitrogen content in the sample which revealed the content of 42 % of proteins and the ISO 2970 method for determining the chloride content revealed the content of about 4 % of salt. The cheese was also evaluated microbiologically, using the count plate method on petri dishes to determine the cultivability of lactic acid bacteria after various length of drying. As for all foods, for dairy products or more precisely, cheeses as well, sensorial quality is of great importance, therefore samples of trnič were also sensory described, in accordance with a 20-point scale. We evaluated the exterior appearance or shape, color, texture, cross section, smell and taste.
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