Abstract
The present study was carried out to characterize the FA profile of sheep cheese marketed in Chile. Fifty-eight cheeses were collected from supermarkets of 5 different Chilean cities including 34 sheep cheeses, 7 from goat’s milk, 11 from cow’s milk, 4 from a mixture of sheep, goat and cow’s milk and 2 from a mixture of sheep and cow’s milk. Compared to the cow and goat cheese (3.4 and 2.5 g·100g −1 ), the sheep cheese (3.8 g·100g −1 ) contained higher contents of C18:1t. The saturated and polyunsatured FA contents were greater in goat cheese than in sheep and cow cheese. The n6/n3 ratio was greater in goat (6.1) cheese than in sheep and cow cheese (3.8 and 5.2). The atherogenicity index was unaffected by cheese type, however, the thrombogenic index was lower in sheep cheese (2.8) than in goat and cow cheese (3.1 and 2.9). The n6/n3 ratio and thrombogenic index were lower in Chilean sheep cheese than in those imported from Europe. The fatty acid profile of cheese can be used to differentiate animal species from which the cheese is made and to some extent the geographical origin that may give some insight as to animal feed and production management.
Highlights
In Chile there has been a significant growth in cheese production (ODEPA, 2012) and at the same time, there has been an incipient market for sheep cheese because it is considered a gourmet product whose production is expected to increase in the forthcoming years
Group II was composed of 13 samples from which 11 were Chilean cow cheeses and 2 were Spanish mixture cheeses
The results indicated that the fatty acid (FA) profiles of Chilean cheese were desirable from a human health standpoint
Summary
In Chile there has been a significant growth in cheese production (ODEPA, 2012) and at the same time, there has been an incipient market for sheep cheese because it is considered a gourmet product whose production is expected to increase in the forthcoming years. Consumers have become more concerned about the fat content of dairy products and this has led to the development of different nutritional strategies to improve the FA composition of dairy products such as cheese (Vera et al, 2009; Toro-Mujica et al, 2011). Producing cheese with an improved fatty acid (FA) composition could significantly increase economic returns to farmers (Vera et al, 2009). It has been demonstrated that the modulation of dairy ewe diets (Vargas-Bello-Pérez et al, 2013 a,b) results in sheep cheese with reduced atherogenic and thrombogenic indices and low saturated FA contents
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
