Fatty acid profile and physicochemical properties of Greek protected designation of origin cheeses, implications for authentication

Greek protected designation of origin (PDO) cheeses are well-known for their quality and nutritive value. One hundred and twelve samples from 21 Greek PDO cheeses, a non-PDO and a potential PDO were analyzed for fatty acid (FA) profile and several physicochemical parameters including moisture, fat on dry matter (FDM), protein content, pH and salt content. Analyzed hard and semi-hard cheeses were Sfela, Kefalograviera, Kasseri, Ladotyri Mytilinis, Formaella Arachovas Parnassou, Graviera Agrafon, Graviera Kritis, Metsovone, Graviera Naxou, Mastelo, Batzos and San Michali. Soft, spread and whey cheeses included Kopanisti, Xynomyzithra Kritis, White cheese, Kalathaki Limnou, Manouri, Feta, Xygalo Siteias, Galotyri, Katiki Domokou, Pichtogalo Chanion and Anevato. The profile of 37 FAs combined with physiochemical properties was utilized to discriminate cheeses by label (cheese identity), cheese type (hard, semi-hard, soft, spread and whey) and milk type (cow, goat, sheep and combinations). The study found that Sfela had the highest salinity, Manouri the highest FDM and San Michali the highest content of proteins. Regarding FAs, the dominant ones in almost all cheeses were C14:0, C16:0, C18:0 and cis-9 C18:1. For classification concerning cheese identity, the most significant parameters were moisture, fat, C18:2n-6c, pH and salt. The most significant discriminants by cheese type were pH, moisture, FDM, salt and C16:0 while C10:0, C11:0, C14:1, C18:2n-6c, C20:0, C20:3n-6 and saturated FAs were more influential to separate by milk type. Results depict the FA profile of Greek PDO cheeses and show that in combination with physicochemical characteristics can be used as authenticity markers.