Serra da Estrela cheese’s free amino acids profiles by UPLC-DAD-MS/MS and their application for cheese origin assessment

Publication date: Available online 8 October 2019Source: Food Research InternationalAuthor(s): M.J. Reis Lima, Andréia O. Santos, Soraia Falcão, Luísa Fontes, Edite Teixeira-Lemos, Miguel Vilas-Boas, Ana C.A. Veloso, António M. PeresAbstractSerra da Estrela cheese is a high-value Portuguese Protected Designation of Origin cheese, produced with raw ewe milk. Thus, information regarding its composition is of utmost relevance for both consumers and certified producers. In this work, the chromatographic profiles of free amino acids in cheeses (45 days of maturation, 6 producers located in 5 municipalities and produced from November 2017 to March 2018) were established by UPLC-DAD-MS/MS. The proposed method allowed detecting 19 free amino acids and cystine with overall limits of detection and quantification lower than 44 μmol/L (1.4 mg/100 g cheese, wet matter) and than 134 μmol/L (4.2 mg/100 g cheese, wet matter), respectively. In all cheeses, 17 free amino acids were quantified including 8 essential amino acids (histidine, leucine-isoleucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan and valine) and 9 non-essential amino acids (arginine, asparagine, aspartic acid, cysteine, glutamic acid, glutamine, proline, serine and tyrosine). The amounts of the free amino acids, essential free amino acids, branched chain free amino acids (leucine, isoleucine and valine) plus the free amino acids ratios (mg/g protein) were further used to identify the produc...
Source: Food Research International - Category: Food Science Source Type: research