The most non-starter lactic acid bacteria (NSLAB) isolated from semi-hard cheeses are heterofermentative and handled as one of the reasons of cheese off-flavours and yield defect but at the same time majority of researches argued positive effect of NSLAB on cheese flavour formation and diversification due to rendered compounds of chemical reactions. The amount of NSLAB in cheese varies from 10 at the beginning of ripening to 105 cfu mlE-1 within 6-8 weeks. The aims of this paper were to establish diversity of NSLAB in commercial samples of Krievijas and Holandes cheeses, and to evaluate the effect of ripening temperatures on NSLAB in the trials of Krievijas cheese. A total of 12 commercial cheese samples from seven different Latvian manufacturers and trials from one cheese manufacturer were examined. The trials were ripened for 60 days at different temperatures - 6 deg C and 12 deg C. Serial dilutions of each cheese sample (1:1000 and 1:10 000) in saline were made. NSLAB were cultivated using MRS media. Strain identification was performed by the API 50 CHL system (BioMerieux, Marey l'Etoile, France). In commercial samples of Krievijas cheese dominance of L. curvatus was observed, simultaneously L.plantarum and L.paracasei subsp. paracasei were isolated. Whereas in Holandes cheese samples dominance of L.paracasei subsp. paracasei was noted and L.plantarum, L.curvatus, L.rhamnosus and L.acidophilus were isolated. In the trials ripened at different temperatures prevalence of L.curvatus was noted. Concentration of Lactobacillus spp. varied from 104 cfu mlE-1 on the first day of ripening and reached the highest concentration (106 cfu mlE-1) after 6 weeks of ripening.

Cultivars of northern highbush blueberries (Vaccinium corymbosum L.) are the most suitable for areas with long, cold winter, because they require the greatest number of winter chilling hours. The blueberries are excellent sources of phytochemicals that are believed to have a significant biological activity. The experiment was done at the Institute of Agrobiotechnology, Latvia University of Agriculture, Jelgava, in the year 2009. The aim of the experiment was to evaluate phenological development of 9 highbush blueberry cultivars, their yield, fruit weight and biochemical composition: total anthocyanins, total phenols, ascorbic acid, titratable acids, and soluble solids. The obtained data showed correlation between duration of flowering and fruit ripening; between harvest and end of vegetation period of the highbush blueberry. The phenological development was dependent not only on cultivars, but also on the effective air temperature (above + 5 deg C). The research results allow assessing the phenology development of blueberry cultivars and predicting the fruit ripening time in conditions of Latvia. The most productive cultivars were 'Patriot' and 'Northland' The biggest single berry weight presented the cultivars 'Chippewa' and 'Bluejay'. The cultivar 'Jersey' had the highest content of titrable acid, anthocyanins, and ascorbic acid. The highest phenol content was detected in highbush blueberry cultivars 'Spartan' and 'Bluecrop'.

Dairy ecosystems have been developing in thousands of years giving us wonderful collection of different types of cheese varieties. On the other hand, modern technology provokes the loss of variability (Adamberg et al., 2007). The only way to keep biological processes under control is to study physiology of microorganisms, and relationships between them systematically, especially non-starter lactic acid bacteria (NSLAB). The number of non-starter lactic acid bacteria increases during cheese ripening and may constitute a dominant population in the mature cheese. The NSLAB diversity, their metabolism and interactions with starter bacteria have an effect on the ripening process of the cheese. The aim of the present study was to investigate the diversity of Lactobacillus spp. during ripening of Krievijas cheese. The diversity of different profiles varied among the cheese samples matured at different temperatures, and the results indicated a correlation between NSLAB species and aroma development (Miķelsone et al., 2009). A higher metabolism of Lactobacillus curvatus at 12 deg C leads to faster depletion of nutrients and approaching the last two phases of microorganism growth curve. However, in each of the cheeses, the microflora had a tendency to be dominated by one Lactobacillus profile at the end of maturation.

Assortment improvement is a natural process of updating varieties and improving the quality of variety assortment. The article presents the results of studying the introduced grape (Vitis vinifera) varieties in the conditions of the southeast of Kazakhstan, in particular in the bottom-mountain area of Almaty region. The beginning and the end of the main phenological phases passing for the vegetative period in a grape plant directly depended on climatic and weather conditions of this district. It is established that varieties ‘Kuibyshevsk early-maturing’, ‘Iyulsky’ and ‘Priusadebny’ have a good degree of eyes wintering buds and are able to give a yield of high quality in this area in comparison with recognized variety ‘Almaty early-maturing’.