1. Basic concepts of food microbiology / Peter Raspor, Sonja Smole Mozina and Mateja Ambrozic -- 2. The microbiology of raw milk / Apostolos S. Angelidis -- 3. Dairy pathogens : characteristics and impact / Photis Papademas and Maria Aspri -- 4. Dairy starter cultures / Thomas Bintsis and Antonis Athanasoulas -- 5. Application of probiotics in the dairy industry : the long way from traditional to novel functional foods / Adele Costabile and Simone Maccaferri -- 6. Application of molecular methods for microbial identification in dairy products / Paul A. Lawson and Dimitris Tsaltas -- 7. Application of food safety management systems (FSMS) in the dairy industry / Thomas Bintsis.