A New Way to Identify the Composition of Lipids in Milk from Different Animal Species by Vibrational Spectroscopy

Abstract

Milk contains a wide range of lipids, including triacylglycerols (TAG) and phospholipids, such as phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol, phosphatidylserine and sphingomyelin. Considering the role of milk lipids as energy carriers and bioactive molecules, in addition to the variety of milks available on the market and the variations in lipid composition between species, this study has compared the lipid profiles of cow, goat, sheep and buffalo milk using spectroscopic techniques, such as infrared and Raman, combined with chemometric analysis. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) proved to be an effective tool in discriminating milk samples from different species based on vibrational data, explaining more than 90% of the total variance with the first two principal components. These results contribute to the understanding of the lipid profiles of milk fat from different species, in addition to their physicochemical properties through non-destructive and easy-to-apply methods.

Keywords: Vibrational spectroscopy, Milk, phospholipids, fatty acids, principal component analysis