NMR spectroscopy in dairy products characterization

A low-and high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy based protocol to characterise traditional Italian cheese as Mozzarella di Bufala Campana and Grana Padano is reported. Low-resolution relaxometry was used for studying the state and distribution of water in different structural elements of cheese resulting from the production process. High-resolution NMR allowed definition of the "chemical fingerprint", the cheese complex matrix profile of low molecular weight metabolites extracted from Mozzarella and Grana Padano. Both low-resolution and high-resolution NMR seem to provide useful parameters that could be used for monitoring structure and evolution of PDO Italian cheese. ©2011 Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.