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Health Promoting Compounds in Milk and Dairy Products
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Health Promoting Compounds in Milk and Dairy Products

A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Food Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2025 | Viewed by 21757

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Pamela Manzi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
CREA-Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l'Analisi dell'Economia Agraria, Rome, Italy
Interests: analytical chemistry; food science; sample preparation; chromatography; spectroscopy; multivariate data analysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Mena Ritota

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l’Analisi dell’Economia Agraria (CREA) Centro di Ricerca Alimenti e Nutrizione Via Ardeatina 546, 00178 Rome, Italy
Interests: analytical chemistry; food science; sample preparation; chromatography; spectroscopy; multivariate data analysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

You are cordially invited to contribute to a new edition of a Special Issue on milk and dairy products, entitled "Health-Promoting Compounds in Milk and Dairy Products".

Milk is an essential component of the human diet. It contains all the substances necessary for the growth of the organism and it can be considered a balanced source of proteins with high biological value, sugars, fats, minerals, and vitamins. Milk can be consumed as is or in the form of yoghurts, cheeses, or several other dairy products. In addition to their excellent nutritional value and good sensory properties, milk and dairy products are also considered to be a good source of functional compounds. The numerous research works in the field have confirmed the nutritional importance of dairy products in the prevention of several chronic diseases, and the benefits of consuming dairy products, attributed to the presence of several bioactive compounds (e.g. bioactive peptides, fatty acids such as conjugated linoleic acid and odd-chain fatty acids, antioxidant compounds, vitamins, and minerals) are also well known.

The quality of milk and dairy products, as well as their content of bioactive compounds, can be influenced by several factors, such as the animal genetics, the farming techniques, the animal diet (e.g., more or less rich in fresh grass), the technological processes (e.g., heat treatments, fermentation processes, or the addition of specific ingredients rich in bioactive compounds), and so on. Recently, new technologies such as nanotechnology and non-thermal technologies have been developed to provide new solutions for including bioactive compounds in dairy products, improving the functional properties of these food items without affecting consumers’ sensory perception.

This Special Issue "Health-Promoting Compounds in Milk and Dairy Products" aims to investigate not only the analytical methods for assessing the bioactive compounds in various dairy products, but also to update the information about the nutritional evaluation of milk-based food products. Another aim of this Special Issue is to collect recent studies focused on the improvement of the nutritional value of milk and dairy products due to the breeding and/or feeding conditions, and the role of the technological processes in keeping or enhancing the bioactive compounds in milk-based food products. Contributions on the effects of the bioactive compounds in milk and dairy products in the human diet are also welcome, as are manuscripts addressing the assessment of these functional compounds in promoting health.

Dr. Pamela Manzi
Dr. Mena Ritota
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Molecules is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Milk
  • Dairy products
  • Functional compounds
  • Food quality
  • Protein and bioactive peptides
  • minerals
  • Vitamins
  • Antioxidant compounds
  • Promoting health and well-being

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Published Papers (7 papers)

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11 pages, 1144 KiB  
Article
Predictions of Milk Fatty Acid Contents by Mid-Infrared Spectroscopy in Chinese Holstein Cows
by Xiuxin Zhao, Yuetong Song, Yuanpei Zhang, Gaozhan Cai, Guanghui Xue, Yan Liu, Kewei Chen, Fan Zhang, Kun Wang, Miao Zhang, Yundong Gao, Dongxiao Sun, Xiao Wang and Jianbin Li
Molecules 2023, 28(2), 666; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules28020666 - 9 Jan 2023
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2064
Abstract
Genetic improvement of milk fatty acid content traits in dairy cattle is of great significance. However, chromatography-based methods to measure milk fatty acid content have several disadvantages. Thus, quick and accurate predictions of various milk fatty acid contents based on the mid-infrared spectrum [...] Read more.
Genetic improvement of milk fatty acid content traits in dairy cattle is of great significance. However, chromatography-based methods to measure milk fatty acid content have several disadvantages. Thus, quick and accurate predictions of various milk fatty acid contents based on the mid-infrared spectrum (MIRS) from dairy herd improvement (DHI) data are essential and meaningful to expand the amount of phenotypic data available. In this study, 24 kinds of milk fatty acid concentrations were measured from the milk samples of 336 Holstein cows in Shandong Province, China, using the gas chromatography (GC) technique, which simultaneously produced MIRS values for the prediction of fatty acids. After quantification by the GC technique, milk fatty acid contents expressed as g/100 g of milk (milk-basis) and g/100 g of fat (fat-basis) were processed by five spectral pre-processing algorithms: first-order derivative (DER1), second-order derivative (DER2), multiple scattering correction (MSC), standard normal transform (SNV), and Savitzky–Golsy convolution smoothing (SG), and four regression models: random forest regression (RFR), partial least square regression (PLSR), least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression (LassoR), and ridge regression (RidgeR). Two ranges of wavebands (4000~400 cm−1 and 3017~2823 cm−1/1805~1734 cm−1) were also used in the above analysis. The prediction accuracy was evaluated using a 10-fold cross validation procedure, with the ratio of the training set and the test set as 3:1, where the determination coefficient (R2) and residual predictive deviation (RPD) were used for evaluations. The results showed that 17 out of 31 milk fatty acids were accurately predicted using MIRS, with RPD values higher than 2 and R2 values higher than 0.75. In addition, 16 out of 31 fatty acids were accurately predicted by RFR, indicating that the ensemble learning model potentially resulted in a higher prediction accuracy. Meanwhile, DER1, DER2 and SG pre-processing algorithms led to high prediction accuracy for most fatty acids. In summary, these results imply that the application of MIRS to predict the fatty acid contents of milk is feasible. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Health Promoting Compounds in Milk and Dairy Products)
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11 pages, 2075 KiB  
Article
Development of a Microsphere-Based Immunoassay Authenticating A2 Milk and Species Purity in the Milk Production Chain
by Alexander J. W. Elferink, Deborah Entiriwaa, Paolo Bulgarelli, Nathalie G. E. Smits and Jeroen Peters
Molecules 2022, 27(10), 3199; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules27103199 - 17 May 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2669
Abstract
Processed milk and milk products produced from bovine milk, commonly contain β-casein A1 (βCA1) and β-casein A2 (βCA2). Since the presence of βCA1 is linked to milk intolerance and digestion problems, A2A2 milk, which only contains βCA2, is proposed as a healthier alternative. [...] Read more.
Processed milk and milk products produced from bovine milk, commonly contain β-casein A1 (βCA1) and β-casein A2 (βCA2). Since the presence of βCA1 is linked to milk intolerance and digestion problems, A2A2 milk, which only contains βCA2, is proposed as a healthier alternative. To support this health claim, the purity of A2A2-milk has to be guaranteed. In the presented study, a multiplex immunoassay, able to distinguish between βCA2 and βCA1, was developed and real-life applicability was shown on raw milk samples from genotyped A1A1, A1A2 and A2A2 cows. Because of its ability to discriminate between βCA2 and βCA1, this newly developed method was able to detect the addition of common bovine A1A2 milk to A2A2 milk, as low as 1%. Besides the detection of A2A2 milk purity, the developed assay can also be implemented as a rapid phenotyping method at dairy farms to replace the more invasive DNA-based screening. Additionally, the developed method was capable of detecting the addition of common bovine milk up to 1% in sheep, goat, buffalo, horse and donkey milk, which conforms to EU recommendations. In conclusion, a newly developed multiplex method capable of reliably detecting the dilution of A2A2 milk of multiple species, with common bovine milk up to 1%, is presented. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Health Promoting Compounds in Milk and Dairy Products)
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13 pages, 1592 KiB  
Article
Cow and Ewe Cheeses Made with Saffron: Characterization of Bioactive Compounds and Their Antiproliferative Effect in Cervical Adenocarcinoma (HeLa) and Breast Cancer (MDA-MB-231) Cells
by Mena Ritota, Raffaella Comitato and Pamela Manzi
Molecules 2022, 27(6), 1995; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules27061995 - 19 Mar 2022
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2236
Abstract
Saffron is a widespread consumed spice containing many phytochemicals. It is often used in dairy technologies to enhance color and flavor of cheeses, but it is also known for its several therapeutic effects, as well as its antiproliferative and anticancer properties. In this [...] Read more.
Saffron is a widespread consumed spice containing many phytochemicals. It is often used in dairy technologies to enhance color and flavor of cheeses, but it is also known for its several therapeutic effects, as well as its antiproliferative and anticancer properties. In this study High Performance Liquid Chromatography was used to characterize saffron bioactive compounds in cow and ewe cheeses made with saffron, and the antiproliferative effect of the crocin-rich extracts from cheeses was investigated on different cellular lines (CaCo2, MDA-MB-231 and HeLa) by MTT assay. Crocins were observed in all cheese samples, with the total content ranging between 0.54 and 30.57 mg trans-4-GG/100 g cheese, according to the different cheese making process. Picrocrocin was detected in no cheese (probably due to its degradation during cheese making), while safranal was detected only in one ewe cheese (mainly due to its high volatility). HeLa and MDA-MB-231 cells were sensitive to treatment with crocin-rich extracts from cheeses, while no effect was observed on CaCo2 cells. The chemical environment of the food matrix seems to have a great influence on the crocin antiproliferative effect: the crocin-rich extracts from cheese with both high residual N/protein and fat contents showed increased antiproliferative effect compared to pure crocin (trans-4-GG), but cheeses from different milk species (type of fats and proteins) could also play an important role in modulating crocin’s antiproliferative effects. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Health Promoting Compounds in Milk and Dairy Products)
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16 pages, 444 KiB  
Article
Content and Nutritional Evaluation of Zinc in PDO and Traditional Italian Cheeses
by Pamela Manzi, Maria Gabriella Di Costanzo and Mena Ritota
Molecules 2021, 26(20), 6300; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26206300 - 18 Oct 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2420
Abstract
Zinc is an essential mineral which plays a key role in several important biological processes in the human body. The determination of its level in food matrices can contribute to the food quality characterization and to the adequacy of the diet. Animal food [...] Read more.
Zinc is an essential mineral which plays a key role in several important biological processes in the human body. The determination of its level in food matrices can contribute to the food quality characterization and to the adequacy of the diet. Animal food products generally have a higher zinc content compared to vegetables. Among them, dairy products consumption can provide a great contribution to the zinc reference intakes. In this study, different Italian cheeses (38 Protected Denomination of Origin and 9 Traditional) were evaluated for their zinc content. Cow cheeses generally showed the highest zinc content (1.83–7.75 mg/100 g cheese), followed by sheep cheeses (1.34–3.69 mg/100 g), and cheeses from mixed milk (0.39–4.54 mg/100 g). The only cheese from buffalo milk (Mozzarella di Bufala Campana PDO) showed a zinc content of 2.14 mg/100 g. The great variability in the zinc content observed among the samples is the result of the influence of several factors, such as the feeding system, the species (cow, sheep, goat, and buffalo), and the cheese-making. Most of the samples resulted in a great contribution (>10%) to the zinc Daily Reference Intake set by EU (10 mg/day), with only two samples contributing to less than 4%. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Health Promoting Compounds in Milk and Dairy Products)
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14 pages, 1150 KiB  
Article
Effect of Vitamin C Source on Its Stability during Storage and the Properties of Milk Fermented by Lactobacillus rhamnosus
by Agata Znamirowska, Katarzyna Szajnar and Małgorzata Pawlos
Molecules 2021, 26(20), 6187; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26206187 - 14 Oct 2021
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 3848
Abstract
The enrichment of commonly consumed foods with bioactive components might be helpful in promoting health and reducing the risk of disease, so the enrichment of probiotic fermented milk with vitamin C can be considered appropriate. The effect of vitamin C addition depends on [...] Read more.
The enrichment of commonly consumed foods with bioactive components might be helpful in promoting health and reducing the risk of disease, so the enrichment of probiotic fermented milk with vitamin C can be considered appropriate. The effect of vitamin C addition depends on the source of origin (rosehip, acerola and ascorbic acid in powder form) on the growth and survival of Lactobacillus rhamnosus and the quality of fermented milk on the 1st and 21st day of storage was analyzed. The pH, total acidity, vitamin C, syneresis, color, texture profile and numbers of bacterial cells in fermented milk were determined. The organoleptic evaluation was also performed. The degradation of vitamin C in milk was shown to depend on its source. The lowest reduction of vitamin C was determined in milk with rosehip. The least stable was vitamin C naturally found in control milk. The addition of rosehip and acerola decreased syneresis and lightness of milk color, increasing the yellow and red color proportion. In contrast, milk with ascorbic acid was the lightest during the whole experimental period and was characterized by a very soft gel. The growth of Lactobacillus rhamnosus during fermentation was most positively affected by the addition of rosehip. However, the best survival of Lactobacillus rhamnosus was demonstrated in milk with acerola. On the 21st day of storage, the number of L. rhamnosus cells in the control milk and the milk with vitamin C was >8 log cfu g−1, so these milks met the criterion of therapeutic minimum. According to the assessors, the taste and odor contributed by the addition of rosehip was the most intense of all the vitamin C sources used in the study. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Health Promoting Compounds in Milk and Dairy Products)
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13 pages, 300 KiB  
Article
Changes in the Folate Content and Fatty Acid Profile in Fermented Milk Produced with Different Starter Cultures during Storage
by Marta Czarnowska-Kujawska and Beata Paszczyk
Molecules 2021, 26(19), 6063; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26196063 - 7 Oct 2021
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3422
Abstract
The application of bacterial cultures in food fermentation is a novel strategy to increase the “natural” levels of bioactive compounds. The unique ability of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) to produce folate, B vitamins, and conjugated linolenic acid cis9trans11 C18:2 (CLA) [...] Read more.
The application of bacterial cultures in food fermentation is a novel strategy to increase the “natural” levels of bioactive compounds. The unique ability of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) to produce folate, B vitamins, and conjugated linolenic acid cis9trans11 C18:2 (CLA) during cold storage up to 21 days was studied. Although some species of LAB can produce folates and other important nutrients, little is known about the production ability of yogurt starter cultures. Pasteurized milk samples were inoculated with four different combinations of commercially available yogurt vaccines, including starter cultures of Bifidobacterium bifidum. Both the type of vaccine and the time of storage at 8 °C had a significant effect on the folate and CLA contents in the tested fermented milks. The highest folate content (105.4 µg/kg) was found in fresh fermented milk inoculated with Lactobacillus delbrueckii, Streptococcus thermophilus, and Bifidobacterium bifidum. Only the mix of Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus, Streptococcus thermophilus, and Bifidobacterium bifidum showed potential (59% increase) to synthesize folate during seven days of storage. A significant increase in the content of CLA, when compared to fresh fermented milk, was observed during cold storage for up to 21 days in products enriched with Bifidobacterium bifidum. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Health Promoting Compounds in Milk and Dairy Products)
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16 pages, 2003 KiB  
Opinion
Vitamin D Fortification of Consumption Cow’s Milk: Health, Nutritional and Technological Aspects. A Multidisciplinary Lecture of the Recent Scientific Evidence
by Luisa Pellegrino, Franca Marangoni, Giovanna Muscogiuri, Paolo D’Incecco, Guillaume T. Duval, Cedric Annweiler and Annamaria Colao
Molecules 2021, 26(17), 5289; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26175289 - 31 Aug 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3464
Abstract
Vitamin D is essential in assuring bone health at all stages of life, but its non-skeletal effects are also essential: This vitamin impacts the physiology of the immune system, skeletal muscles and adipose tissue, glucose metabolism, skin, cardiovascular and reproductive systems, neuro-cognitive functions [...] Read more.
Vitamin D is essential in assuring bone health at all stages of life, but its non-skeletal effects are also essential: This vitamin impacts the physiology of the immune system, skeletal muscles and adipose tissue, glucose metabolism, skin, cardiovascular and reproductive systems, neuro-cognitive functions and cell division. The incidence of vitamin D deficiency is widespread worldwide, at any age, in young and healthy subjects, as well as in pregnant women and the elderly population, due to several factors, including inadequate sunlight exposure, skin pigmentation and coverage, adiposity, lifestyle and low dietary intakes. To overcome this problem, the fortification of foods that are consumed on a daily basis, such as milk, is strongly advisable. This opinion paper aims to discuss, in a multidisciplinary way, the current evidence supporting the importance of vitamin D in health and disease and the role of milk as an optimal carrier of this vitamin, to promote adequate intakes, highlighting its unique physico-chemical characteristics linked to both fat globule membrane and casein micelle structure. Moreover, it addresses the impact of industrial processing and storage of consumption milk on the stability of these structures, thus in determining vitamin D bioavailability and the achievement of adequate intakes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Health Promoting Compounds in Milk and Dairy Products)
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