title: Mass spectrometry detection of fraudulent use of cow whey in water buffalo, sheep, or goat Italian ricotta cheese.
abstract: Ricotta cheese is a typical Italian product, made with whey from various species, including cow, buffalo, sheep, and goat. Ricotta cheese nominally manufactured from the last three species may be fraudulently produced using the comparatively cheaper cow whey. Exposing such food frauds requires a reliable analytical method. Despite the extensive similarities shared by whey proteins of the four species, a mass spectrometry-based analytical method was developed that exploits three species-specific peptides derived from β-lactoglobulin and α-lactalbumin. This method can detect as little as 0.5% bovine whey in ricotta cheese from the other three species. Furthermore, a tight correlation was found (R(2)>0.99) between cow whey percentages and mass spectrometry measurements throughout the 1-50% range. Thus, this method can be used for forensic detection of ricotta cheese adulteration and, if properly validated, to provide quantitative evaluations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology and Neurosciences, Higher Institute of Health (ISS), Viale Regina Elena, 299, 00161 Rome, Italy. Electronic address: serena.camerini@iss.it.
authors.forename: Serena
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Camerini
authors.affiliation: Ministry of Agriculture Food and Forest Policies, Department of Central Inspectorate for Food and Feed Quality Protection and Fraud Repression, Central Laboratory of Rome, Via del Fornetto, 85, 00149 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Emanuela
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Montepeloso
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology and Neurosciences, Higher Institute of Health (ISS), Viale Regina Elena, 299, 00161 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Marialuisa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Casella
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology and Neurosciences, Higher Institute of Health (ISS), Viale Regina Elena, 299, 00161 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Crescenzi
authors.affiliation: Ministry of Agriculture Food and Forest Policies, Department of Central Inspectorate for Food and Feed Quality Protection and Fraud Repression, Central Laboratory of Rome, Via del Fornetto, 85, 00149 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Rosa Maria
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Marianella
authors.affiliation: Ministry of Agriculture Food and Forest Policies, Department of Central Inspectorate for Food and Feed Quality Protection and Fraud Repression, Central Laboratory of Rome, Via del Fornetto, 85, 00149 Rome, Italy. Electronic address: f.fuselli@politicheagricole.gov.it.
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fuselli
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002020:Buffaloes; D002417:Cattle; D002611:Cheese / Q000032:analysis*; D005260:Female; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D006041:Goats; D007768:Lactalbumin / Q000032:analysis; D007782:Lactoglobulins / Q000032:analysis; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*; D012756:Sheep; D000067796:Whey / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D007782:Lactoglobulins; D007768:Lactalbumin
keywords: Mass spectrometry; Ricotta cheese; Whey proteins; α-Lactalbumin; β-Lactoglobulin