Cheese is a dairy product used directly for human consumption or indirectly as an ingredient of
other foods or ready meals. Being an extremely valued product, cheese is a concentrated source of
proteins, vitamins and minerals, especially calcium, phosphorus and magnesium. Various spices are used
to enhance the taste of food, which also have numerous medicinal properties. The aim of this study
was to examine the effect of the addition of different spices on the mineral composition of cheeses,
obtained by heat-acid coagulation of milk. There were six different samples of cheese produced in the
milk processing plant (mini cheese factory). The first sample was taken as a control one, with no addition
of spices, and the other five were produced with 0.5% addition of different spices (oregano, basil,
parsley, rosemary and chives). The total ash content and the content of macro- and microelements were
determined in the tested cheese samples. It was established that the addition of different spices has
a statistically significant (p<0.05) effect on the content of macro- and microelements in the produced
cheeses. The total content of macro-elements ranged from 612.55 mg/100g to 811.81 mg/100g, of
which sodium had the largest share (from 293.61 mg/100g to 389.20 mg/100g), as well as calcium
(from 74.13 mg/ 100g to 278.12 mg/100g). The total content of microelements in the tested spicecontaining cheeses ranged from 7.317 mg/100g to 9.360 mg/100g, of which the most abundant was zinc, the content of which was between 5.903 mg/100g and 7.351 mg/100g.
