Effects of season and management on fatty acid profile, ACE-inhibitory activity and anti-oxidant properties of Italian Alpine cheeses

Abstract

Mountain dairy products are recognised as high-quality food but there are still few studies concerning the effects of seasonality and herd management on the profile of bioactive compounds in cheeses. This study was planned to assess the effect of season (summer versus winter) and feeding management (pasture versus integration) on fatty acids (FAs) profile, anti-hypertensive (ACE-IA) and anti-oxidant properties (ABTS-SA, FRAP), total thiol (SH) and phenolic (TP) contents of cheeses from two dairy cow farms (Farm A and Farm B) located in Piedmontese Alps (Italy). Cheese samples collected in the farms were submitted to an integrated analytical approach and the results were processed by full factorial ANOVA and PCA. The trends observed from the FAs profile confirmed the beneficial influence of supplying fresh forage to lactating cows. The ACE-IA was higher in summer than in winter cheese but depended upon the farm factor. Among the indicators of antioxidant activity, only the ABTS-SA was affected by the season, even though with significant differences between the farms. The TP content did not show any clear pattern, but it was higher than the values described in the literature. The PCA of all the data showed that several FAs and the ABTS-SA gave relevant contributions to clearly group the cheese samples according to the production season or farm. In conclusion, alpine cheese exhibited high nutritional quality under the consumers’ health standpoint, and the identification of the healthier summer cheeses for traceability or labelling purposes, can be obtained. Highlights Seasonality and herd management practices affected the nutritional quality of cheese produced in two dairy farms in Piedemontese Alps. Lipid quality was affected by the feeding strategy, with the greater improvements obtained by pasture grazing or fresh grass consumption in the barn. ACE-inhibitory activity and anti-oxidant properties were influenced by both seasonality and farm of origin, with the best values measured in summer cheese.