The Single European Market and the Quality of Dairy Products

In 1993, the Single European Market will become reality. For consumers and producers, economic advantages can be expected. However,concern has been expressed as to the possible negative effects on food quality. After a brief review of EC food legislation, outlines activities in the dairy field which may contribute to a high quality standard of dairy products. These are among other things related to drinking milk (protein content, heat load), fermented milk(characteristic micro‐organisms), cheese (raw milk cheeses, cheeses with specific characteristics) and butter (butter definition, criteria for first quality butter, control of butterfat purity). In a final chapter discusses the future role of products obtained from genetically manipulated micro‐organisms in the dairy sector.