The effect of herbs added to the summer diet sheep on the lipid fraction profile of raw milk for cheese making and rennet cheese produced from it

Abstract

A study was conducted on samples of raw sheep milk and bundz rennet cheese produced from it. The milk was obtained from ewes of the Koluda prolific dairy breed, from June to August. The sheep were housed indoors and fed alfalfa green forage, hay, and a mixture of concentrate feeds. Three feeding groups were established: group I ‒ control, fed without the addition of herbs to the concentrate feed, and groups II and III, in which a herb mixture was added to the concentrate feed in the amount of 10 and 20 g/sheep/day, respectively. Six experimental batches of bundz rennet cheese were made from the milk, and the effect of the addition of herbs to the diet on the lipid profile of the milk and cheese was analysed. The results indicate that the experimental factor had no statistically confirmed effect on the lipid profile of the raw milk used to make cheese. However, the milk fat from sheep fed a diet with herbs at 20 g/sheep/day showed a tendency towards reduced content of SFA (by 3.6%) and increased content of UFA (by 6.8%) and DFA (by 7.2%) relative to the control group. The experimental factor had essentially no statistically confirmed effect on the fatty acid profile of the cheese, apart from an 11.3% increase in the content of n-6 PUFA (P≤0.05) in the fat of bundz produced from the milk of sheep fed a diet with herbs at 20 g/sheep/day with respect to the control group. The cheese fat also showed a tendency towards lower content of SFA (by 3.4%) and OFA (by 4.8%) and higher content of UFA (by 7.4%), MUFA (by 7.1%), PUFA (by 9.4%), n-3 PUFA (by 11.5%) and DFA (by 7.6%) compared to the control group. The experimental factor had no statistically confirmed effect on cholesterol content in the raw milk or the bundz cheese produced from it.