Sheep milk components: Focus on nutritional advantages and biofunctional potential

Modification of dairy products’ fat composition or replacement by other fats are common practices in the industry. Products in which milkfat is partially or wholly substituted by vegetable fats are defined as dairy analogues. This study delivers gap-filling information about sour cream analogues in nutritional aspects, focusing on the fat-related attributes. Analogue sour creams contained 29.6% less saturated fatty acids, 88.4% less cholesterol and 88.7% more mono- and poly-unsaturated fatty acids than the sour creams. Trans fatty acids were present in both products, which could not be linked to artificial hydrogenation in either case. Digestibility of the examined samples might be different, as sour creams had more short and medium chain fatty acids than the analogues. Overall, sour cream analogues, besides serving as an alternative to sour cream, have particular advantages based on their nutritional values.

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Differences Between Fat-Related Characteristics of Sour Cream and Sour Cream Analogues

Lipids are major components in foods, especially meat, subcutaneous fat, milk, and dairy products, where these macronutrients can affect health and food characteristics. These effects are attributed to the main components of food lipids: cholesterol and fatty acids, which have great importance in the quality of meat, subcutaneous fat, milk, and dairy products. This chapter aims to provide an overview of the total fat and cholesterol contents as well as the fatty composition and its main fractions in these foods of animal origin. The total fat and cholesterol content varies among foods due to differences in terms of breed, cut (in the case of meat) and intended final product (particularly for dairy products). In the case of fatty acids composition, palmitic acid (C16:0) and oleic acid (C18:1n-9) are the most recurrent main fatty acids among meat, subcutaneous fat, milk, and dairy products. Consequently, saturated fatty acids (SFA) and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) are the main fractions of fatty acids in these foods. 

Animal source: Meat, subcutaneous fat, milk, and dairy products

The Association of excessive fat intake with obesity and coronary heart diseases makes fat reduction important in the diet. Over the past few years, rising consumer interest in health-related issues increased the demand for consuming low-fat foods, especially dairy products. Accordingly, the dairy market has been rising its supply in producing low-fat products; however, fat elimination can negatively influence consumer acceptance of the end product due to the effects of fat on the textural, organoleptic, and functional properties of dairy food. In this regard, the non-acceptable quality of first-generation low-fat products has emphasized seeking practical approaches to combat these defects as a persistent challenge to dairy scientists. Fat replacers are classified into fat mimetics and fat substitutes and are known as substances used in place of the fat in food systems to provide them with some qualities of conventional fat molecules. The clean-label nature of the ingredients used to produce fat mimetics and their verified functionality make them a favorable alternative to solid fats in dairy products. This chapter attempts evaluation on the defects associated with the fat reduction in dairy products and the effect of fat mimetics to improve them as well as the selection of appropriate fat mimetics to use in producing reduced- and low-fat dairy products. As well, the classification of different fat mimetics utilized in producing low-fat dairy products, their source, properties, and effects are reviewed. 

Fat Mimetics in Dairy Products

The chemical composition, fatty acid profile, and cholesterol content of milk fat were analysed during the lactation period of thirty Iranian Ghezel sheep. They were fed dry hay for the first three months and then grazed on fresh grass to the end of lactation, along with barley and wheat middling during the whole period. Fatty acid profile analysis showed palmitic acid to be the dominant fatty acid (45.24±1.88%). During lactation C6:0, C8:0, C10:0, C12:0, and C14:0 contents decreased, while C18:0, C18:1, C18:2, and CLA increased significantly, which can be associated with the change of nutrition from hay to fresh grazing. The cholesterol content of the sheep milk reached 14.88 mg/100 ml milk or 283.43 mg/100 g fat as an average for the whole period of milking. Regression analysis showed a significant increase in cholesterol from 5.42 to 32.87 mg/100 g milk during the lactation period.

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L. Rofehgarinejad

Papers

Fatty acid profile and cholesterol content of Ghezel sheep milk during lactation period