IMPROVEMENT OF THE TECHNOLOGICAL QUALITY AND NUTRACEUTICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF DAIRY PRODUCTS BY LACCASE ENZYME

The improvement of technological quality and nutraceutical characteristics of fresh cheeses is pivotal for the dairy enterprises. However, this goal can be fully reached using ready-to-transfer technologies that make dairy productions more sustainable. Safeguarding quality and flavour of cheeses is also an important task to achieve. On this purpose, we set up a methodology based on the thermal treatment (38 °C) of whole fat milk with 5U/ mL of Ery4 laccase (LC) and 1 mM chlorogenic acid (CGA) before being curdled (Loi et al., 2018). The treatment significantly increased the antioxidant activity of the curd and of a Giuncata cheese subsequently manufactured (by an average of 4 folds compared to control samples) after a simulated gastro pancreatic digestion. In addition, curdling was not affected by LC-CGA treatment and dairy yields were increased by 12%, compared to cheeses from untreated milk, due to the crosslinking by the laccase between ?-, ?- and ?- caseins. The curd and the fresh cheese obtained showed a noticeable greenish colour and no significant organoleptic differences compared to those of untreated samples. For the first time a CGA-based LMS was used in dairy manufacturing to enhance functional properties without being flavoured with vegetal extracts or further additives. The increase in actual yield and the easy implementation to dairy processes are key features of the proposed methodology, which might represent an innovative strategy to increase economical incomes of dairy small medium enterprises.