Safranal transference from ewe's milk to cheese and whey and antifungal properties of fortified whey

Abstract

Growth of undesirable moulds is one of the major causes of defects in modern cheese production, and it is necessary to discover natural antifungal substances that are non-toxic to humans. Saffron spice has been successfully used as a new ingredient in some Italian or Spanish cheeses, but transference of safranal (the main compound responsible for saffron aroma) during cheesemaking has not yet been studied. In this study, the distribution of safranal in cheese, whey and r equesón (Spanish whey cheese) and the antifungal potential of whey fractions against the mould Penicillium verrucosum were studied. To this end, a duplicate fabrication of cheeses was performed with raw ewe's milk with the addition of 40 μg safranal.kg−1 or control milk (no safranal addition). Safranal was more concentrated in cheese and requesón (78.91 and 76.95 μg.kg−1, respectively) than in whey and requesón whey (35.19 and 34.64 μg.kg−1, respectively). These liquid fractions showed good antifungal properties and inhibited mould with a safranal concentration of around 35 μg.kg−1, while a solution of 80 μg.kg−1 was required for a standard safranal solution to obtain a similar inhibition. These results reveal that whey has a synergistic effect with safranal in preventing cheese spoilage by moulds, which encourages making full use of this problematic by-product.