Sheep milk components: focus on nutritional advantages and biofunctional potential

Publication date: Available online 20 July 2019Source: Small Ruminant ResearchAuthor(s): Golfo Moatsou, Lambros SakkasAbstractThe purpose of the present review is to highlight specific features of the components of sheep milk and dairy products with nutritional and biological significance. Fatty acid profile, milk fat globule size, high CLA, sphingomyelin and fat-soluble vitamins contents are more advantageous in nutritional terms, compared to cow milk. Apart from the high protein content and the several related types of biofunctionality, the non-protein fraction of sheep milk is also significant. In this respect, findings on bioactive peptides, proteose-peptone fraction, nucleoside/nucleotide and polyamine contents are reviewed. Finally, minerals and minor compounds such as oligosaccharides and water-soluble vitamins are presented. It is concluded that sheep milk and dairy products are excellent food matrices, while a great part of beneficial sheep milk components is transferred to by-products.
Source: Small Ruminant Research - Category: Zoology Source Type: research