Total solids (TS) were determined in triplicate according to IDF (1982). Ash was determined in tripli- cate at, 550C to constant weight. Total nitrogen (TN), was determined in triplicate by the Kjeldahl method. Water-soluble nitrogen (WSN) was obtained by homo- genizing of 1 g cheese with 5 ml H2O according to `Method I' for WSN extraction, cited in `AIR-FLORA Laboratory Manual' (1997) and nitrogen content was determined in duplicate by the Kjeldahl method. Free amino acids (N-NH2) content was determined in 100 ml WSN in triplicate, by the Cd-ninhydrin method (Folk- ertsma & Fox, 1992)