The forests in Latvia occupy 49.9% of territory and they have significant economic, ecologic and social functions. The notion ‘forest value’ is frequently understood as the value of wood only but non-wood values are often neglected because there are methodological and practical difficulties to estimate them in monetary terms. The list of forest plant non-wood product (FPNWP) groups potentially important for Latvia was made and the significance of them in Latvia’s national economy was estimated. To obtain the information about FPNWP in Latvia (kinds, amounts, value, own-consumption) the public opinion poll was carried out. 77% of the residents of Latvia aged 18 - 74 have gathered the nature products in Latvia in 2010. The most significant FPNWP are mushrooms, wild berries of family Ericaceae - Vaccinium myrtillus L., Vaccinium vitis-idaea L., Oxycoccus palustris Pers. and birch sap. The contribution of FPNWP in the Latvia’s national economy in 2010 was 66.8 million LVL, including 8.9 million LVL for the products sold in the market or exchanged among households.

Kvass is a non-alcoholic beverage produced by fermenting kvass mash with yeast; alcohol content in kvass must be less than 1.2% alcohol by volume. Microbiological safety of kvass is an important issue because European Regulation No 2073/2005 on microbiological criteria for foodstuffs does not provide microbiological criteria for kvass production. Microbiological safety of kvass depends on raw materials, personal hygiene, environment, kvass blending and filtration. Experiments were carried out at the Latvia University of Agriculture Department of Food Technology from November 2013 to January 2014. The aim of this work was to assess the microbiological environment changes during kvass production process and shelf-life. Understanding the development of dynamic of microbiological environment provides a better management for kvass production processes. Samples of bread kvass were analysed during production (12 and 13 h) and storage (36, 60, 84, 132, 136 h) at 3 ± 1 °C to determine kvass quality. Yeasts (LVS EN ISO 21527 - 2: 2008), lactic acid bacteria (ISO 9332:2003) and total plate count (LVS EN ISO 4833:2003) were determined in kvass samples. Microorganisms in kvass were identified using API identification system; the dominating microflora in kvass was Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Leuconostoc mesentericus. Changes of total plate count during fermentation and maturation were not significant (p is greater than 0.05).

Nowadays, veganism is becoming increasingly popular, because health concerns are usually the primary reason why people turn to vegan diet. The aim of the study was to identify the supply of vegan products on the Latvian market by analysing the ingredients used in the production of the products, nutritional and energy value of vegan products. 192 vegan products made in 20 different countries and available in online stores that offer their goods on the Latvian market were analysed. The research was carried out from January to March 2020. Information on the country of origin, ingredients, nutritional and energy value of the products was taken from product labels. The majority of the vegan products in Latvian online stores come from Germany. The most important ingredient in the production in product groups such as meat substitutes and dairy alternatives is soya (Glycine max.), which provides high protein content. The vegan products could not be characterized as low in fat, as the average fat content in the various product groups ranged from 7.9±1.7 to 19.7±3.3 g 100 gE−1 of product, except beverages. The average energy values for all product groups varied between 210.7 kJ 100 mLE−1 for beverages and 1226.0 kJ 100 gE−1 for snacks. There would be a need for everyday vegan products in the Latvian market, as most of the products are snacks at the moment, and legumes should be used as ingredient in the production of new vegan products with increased nutritional value.

Kvass is a non-alcoholic beverage produced by fermenting kvass mash with yeast; alcohol content in kvass must be less than 1.2% by volume. Kvass extracts have longer shelf-life and they are essentially free of ethanol. The aim of this research was to evaluate and compare aroma compounds in naturally fermented kvass and kvass extracts. Experiments were carried out at the Latvia University of Agriculture, Department of Food Technology from November 2014 to February 2015. Three commercially available kvass samples (Bruveris, Bauskas and Liepkalni) were used to produce kvass extracts applying vacuum evaporation. The investigation of volatile compounds in kvass and kvass extracts was performed using solid phase microextraction and gas chromatography mass spectrometry. Dry matter content in kvass extracts was 32.4 ± 0.3% (ISO 2173:2003). In all kvass and extract samples in total 25 volatile compounds were detected. Ten of them were esters, five alcohols, five acids, four aldehydes and three ketones. Such aroma compounds as ethyl acetate (fruity flavour), hexyl acetate (fruit, herb) and ethyl decanoate (grape) were found only in Bruveris kvass, 2,3-butanedione (buttery) and phenethyl butyrate (floral) were found only in Bauskas alus kvass and three volatile compounds were identified only in Liepkalni kvass – acetic acid (sour), furfuryl alcohol (burnt) and carvone (caraway). Less than a half of the main aroma volatiles in kvass were also identified in kvass extracts and total values of peak areas were significantly lower in kvass extracts compared to kvass (p = 0.01).