Abstract
The envisaged promotion of local products contributes to environmental protection and is a valid tool for the promotion of socioeconomic development, enhancement of territories, and biodiversity preservation and sustainability. Provolone del Monaco is a semi hard pasta filata cheese granted PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) designation by the European Union. Provolone del Monaco is obtained from raw cow’s milk, produced in the specific areas of the Lattari Mountains and Sorrento Peninsula (Naples, Italy), and ripened for at least six months. To the best of our knowledge, no studies concerning the complete chemical characterization of Provolone del Monaco cheese are available. In the present study; the chemical characterization (moisture; pH; titratable acidity; nitrogen; and fat content), fatty acid composition determined by using gas-chromatography-flame-ionization-detector (GC-FID); volatile organic compounds by solid-phase microextraction followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (SPME-GC/MS), and maturation indices were evaluated during ripening. Two different average typical cheese sizes (3 kg and 5 kg) and two different internal portions were studied. After 6 months of ripening, the most important changes recorded were the loss of water, the increase in acidity, the nitrogen (as ammonia) release, and the production of volatile organic compounds. The cheese size did not affect the chemical composition of Provolone del Monaco.
Highlights
The great progress in technological processes, agricultural practices, and changes in life style has led toward paying greater attention to local products as principal elements for food product quality improvement, and in the meantime, supporting local agro-biodiversity
The envisaged promotion of local products contributes to environmental protection and it is a valid tool for the promotion of socioeconomic development, enhancement of territories, and biodiversity preservation and sustainability
The typical protocol for Provolone del Monaco production is quite long and starts by mixing together the milk collected in the morning and in the evening, after a preliminary cleaning step by centrifugation
Summary
The great progress in technological processes, agricultural practices, and changes in life style has led toward paying greater attention to local products as principal elements for food product quality improvement, and in the meantime, supporting local agro-biodiversity. The promotion of local foods is well addressed towards a sustainable and environmentally friendly production system, as well as to validated traceability systems. The envisaged promotion of local products contributes to environmental protection and it is a valid tool for the promotion of socioeconomic development, enhancement of territories, and biodiversity preservation and sustainability. Components of traditional diets can be reinforced and promoted for their nutritional quality, health properties, and safety. From this perspective, nutritional science should support sustainable ecosystems, ecological resources, and healthy environments, because nutrition and environmental sustainability are strictly linked through the food system
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