Abstract

“Ricotta” cheese is a traditional and popular Italian fresh whey cheese commonly produced from cow’s milk. Food fortification is an efficient strategy to reduce the high global prevalence of vitamin D deficiency. This study aims to study the chemical-nutritional analysis of ricotta cheese and to assess its suitability as a dairy matrix for vitamin D fortification. The chemical-nutritional analyses revealed that ricotta cheese is a good source of proteins (7.8 g/100 g) with high levels of branched-chain amino acids (1.8 g/100 g). Moreover, ricotta contains high levels of calcium (0.4 g/100 g) and phosphorus (0.2 g/100 g). 50 mg of vitamin D₃ were added to 95 kg of cheese reaching a mean fortification level of 41.4 ± 4.0 µg/100 g of ricotta cheese. The fortification study showed that vitamin D homogenously distributes in ricotta cheese after the homogenisation process. Moreover, vitamin D₃ has high heat stability (93.8 ± 1.8%) and remains stable throughout the shelf-life of the fortified food. This study demonstrates that ricotta cheese represents an ideal alternative dairy matrix for vitamin D₃ fortification.

摘要

“ Ricotta”奶酪是一种传统且流行的意大利新鲜乳清奶酪，通常由牛奶制成。食品强化是减少全球维生素D缺乏症高发生率的有效策略。这项研究旨在研究意大利乳清干酪的化学营养分析，并评估其作为维生素D强化乳制品基质的适用性。化学营养分析表明，意大利乳清干酪是蛋白质的良好来源（7.8 g / 100 g），且分支链氨基酸含量较高（1.8 g / 100 g）。此外，乳清干酪含有高含量的钙（0.4 g / 100 g）和磷（0.2 g / 100 g）。50毫克维生素D ₃将其添加到95千克奶酪中，平均强化水平为41.4±4.0微克/ 100克意大利乳清干酪。强化研究表明，在均质化过程中，维生素D在乳清干酪中均匀分布。此外，维生素D ₃具有很高的热稳定性（93.8±1.8％），并且在强化食品的整个保质期内保持稳定。这项研究表明，意大利乳清干酪代表了维生素D ₃强化的理想替代乳制品基质。