The incorporation of plant materials in "Serra da Estrela" cheese improves antioxidant activity without changing the fatty acid profile and visual appearance
The authors are grateful to the companies Queijos Casa Matias, Lda and Mais Ervas, Lda. for providing the cheese and M. officinalis samples, respectively. The authors also acknowledge PRODER project No. 46577-Plant Lact., and the Foundation for Science and Technology (FTC, Portugal) for financial support to the research center CIMO (Pest-OE/AGR/UI0690/2011).
“Serra da Estrela” cheese is a Portuguese delicacy, which has been produced for centuries from the milk of cattle pasturing in the protected Serra da Estrela natural park. Transforming this cheese into a functional food would be a huge benefit for the market and the consumer. Decocted extracts and dried chestnut flowers and lemon balm plants were incorporated into the cheese to functionalize it, granting antioxidant activity to this foodstuff. The functionalized cheeses showed higher antioxidant activity, especially lipid peroxidation inhibition. The incorporation of dried plants appeared to be more effective than using decoctions, but the influence of the plant species was less observable. Furthermore, the fatty acids profile of the cheeses was also determined through gas chromatography. C18:1 and C16:0 were the most abundant fatty acids; saturated fatty acids prevailed over the unsaturated ones. Between the control and the incorporated samples no significant differences were found. In addition, the external color was measured through a spectrophotometer for lightness, yellowness and redness. There were some differences recorded for each samples’ color. In general, the results indicated that the functionalization of this exquisite dairy product with natural plant extracts provided beneficial characteristics, both for consumers (healthier product) and producers (added-value products).
