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. 2020 Jan 12;25(2):304.
doi: 10.3390/molecules25020304.

A Preliminary Study on Metabolome Profiles of Buffalo Milk and Corresponding Mozzarella Cheese: Safeguarding the Authenticity and Traceability of Protected Status Buffalo Dairy Products

Angela Salzano  1 , Gelsomina Manganiello  2 , Gianluca Neglia  1 , Francesco Vinale  1   3 , Donato De Nicola  1 , Michael D'Occhio  4 , Giuseppe Campanile  1
Affiliations

A Preliminary Study on Metabolome Profiles of Buffalo Milk and Corresponding Mozzarella Cheese: Safeguarding the Authenticity and Traceability of Protected Status Buffalo Dairy Products

Angela Salzano et al. Molecules. .

Abstract

The aim of this study is to combine advanced GC-MS and metabolite identification in a robust and repeatable technology platform to characterize the metabolome of buffalo milk and mozzarella cheese. The study utilized eleven dairies located in a protected designation of origin (PDO) region and nine dairies located in non-PDO region in Italy. Samples of raw milk (100 mL) and mozzarella cheese (100 g) were obtained from each dairy. A total of 185 metabolites were consistently detected in both milk and mozzarella cheese. The PLS-DA score plots clearly differentiated PDO and non-PDO milk and mozzarella samples. For milk samples, it was possible to divide metabolites into two classes according to region: those with lower concentrations in PDO samples (galactopyranoside, hydroxybuthyric acid, allose, citric acid) and those with lower concentrations in non-PDO samples (talopyranose, pantothenic acid, mannobiose, etc.,). The same was observed for mozzarella samples with the proportion of some metabolites (talopyranose, 2, 3-dihydroxypropyl icosanoate, etc.,) higher in PDO samples while others (tagatose, lactic acid dimer, ribitol, etc.,) higher in non-PDO samples. The findings establish the utility of GC-MS together with mass spectral libraries as a powerful technology platform to determine the authenticity, and create market protection, for "Mozzarella di Bufala Campana."

Keywords: GC-MS; authenticity; buffalo; metabolome; milk; mozzarella.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Partial least square discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) models to discriminate PDO and non-PDO buffalo milk (A1) and mozzarella (B1) samples. The explained variance of each component is shown in parentheses on the corresponding axis. (A2) and (B2) panels show the 15 top-scoring variable importance in projection (VIP) metabolites (VIP-score ≥ 1.5) for milk (A2) and mozzarella (B2) samples. The colored boxes on the right indicate the relative amount of the corresponding metabolite in each group under study.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Box and Whisker plot of the VIP metabolites in buffalo milk samples. Boxes represent non-PDO (yellow) and PDO (blue) milk samples. The vertical axis reports the log of the gas chromatography mass spectrometry values of the normalized area of each metabolite.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Box and Whisker plot of the VIP metabolites in buffalo mozzarella samples. Boxes represent non-PDO (green) and PDO (orange) mozzarella samples. The vertical axis reports the log of the gas chromatography mass spectrometry values of the normalized area of each metabolite.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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