Fatty acid and triglycerides profiling of retail organic, conventional and pasture milk: Implications for health and authenticity

Abstract

Retail full fat high temperature short time pasteurised conventional, organic and “weidemelk” (Dutch quality label for milk from cows on pasture at least 6 h per day, 120 days per year) milk samples were collected on 2 sampling dates in winter and 4 sampling dates in summer 2013 and analysed for the fatty acid (FA) and the triglyceride (TAG) profile by gas chromatography-flame ionisation detection. FA profile of organic milk was significantly different from that of conventional and “weidemelk” milk both in summer and in winter and the differences between conventional and “weidemelk” milk were less remarkable or negligible. Analogously, the TAG profile of organic milk was different from that of the other two groups but the differences were weaker compared with FA profile. The differences in FA composition of retail full fat milk may have implications for consumers' health and may be used for the authentication of retail organic milk.