Lipidomica nel formaggio Ragusano

– Lipidomic in Ragusano cheese – The interest on nutraceutic molecules in milk and cheeses has increased in the last years, due to their healthy properties important for humans. Lipids represent a principal role among these molecules. Lipid composition of food deeply depends on feed offered to animal. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of the Hyblean pasture composition on the lipidic profile in Ragusano cheese. Ragusano cheese is a pasta filata cheese made with raw milk produced by cows fed with natural pasture. It is a niche product produced by small farms located in the South of Sicily. A positive correlation was detected in the combined effect of feeding time of the cow and the content of mono, poli and unsaturated fatty acid (MUFA, PUFA and UFA). This results underlines the importance of the diet of animals on cheese’s lipidic profile. The alpha-linolenic acid increases linearly with the amount of pasture intake by the cow, confirming the literature. Furthermore, the analysed samples showed the presence of some lipid intermediates belonging to the pool of the long chain fatty acids etanolammidi (FAEs): anandamide (AEA), oleoiletanolamide (OEA) and palmitoiletanolamide (PEA). The interest in looking for those molecules in cheese was generated by the discovery of their role as intermediate in food behaviour, opening new perspectives in the nutrition topic. Concluding, pasture impacts in the nutraceutic molecules contents in cheeses made using raw milk produced by cows bred in traditional systems