Fatty Acid Composition of Livno Cheese

Abstract

During its 132-year production, the characteristics of Livno cheesechanged, first because of the transition from sheep to cow’s milk, or their mixture.Livno cheese is specific primarly due to the presence of a specific plant cover inmountain area, climatic conditions and milk of autochthonous sheep. The purposeof this work is to determine the fatty acid composition of Livno cheese, with specialreference to the contenct of bioactive components that have a positive effect onhuman health, and to tracking any changes in their content depending on thesampling or feeding period. For the production of Livno cheese, which was sampledafter 90 days of ripening at ambient conditions, sheep’s milk was used, mentioningthat the cow’s milk was added in proportion (80:20), which is commonly used in thetraditional production of this cheese. Samples were analyzed by gas chromatographyin As Vitas laboratory in Oslo Innovation Center, according to the proceduredescribed in Luna and al. (2005). A total of 24 fatty acids were determined during thethree sampling periods (July, August and September) In cheese samples, saturatedfatty acid content (SFAs) was higher in relation to monounsaturated(MUFAs) andpolyunsaturated (PUFAs) fatty acids. The fatty acid composition of the tested cheesesamples is specific, because it contains fatty acids which have been proven to havean extremely beneficial effect on human health.