Content and Bioaccessibility of Vitamin K (Phylloquinone and Menaquinones) in Cheese

Vitamin K is a fat-soluble group of vitamers consisting of phylloquinone (PK) and menaquinones (MKs). To date, only a daily reference intake for PK is set; however, in the last decade, research studying the correlation between MKs intake and improvement of health in regards to cardiovascular diseases, bone metabolism, and chronic kidney disease has been conducted. MKs are synthesised by bacteria in the fermentation process of foods, e.g., cheeses. The content and bioaccessibility of vitamin K vitamers (PK, MK-4, MK-5, MK-6, MK-7, MK-8, MK-9, and MK-10) were assessed in eight different cheese products differing in ripening time, starter culture, fat content, and water content. The bioaccessibility was assessed using the static in vitro digestion model INFOGEST 2.0. Variation of the vitamin K content (<0.5 μg/100 g–32 μg/100 g) and of the vitamin K bioaccessibility (6.4–80%) was observed. A longer ripening time did not necessarily result in an increase of MKs. These results indicate that the vitamin K content and bioaccessibility differs significantly between different cheese products, and the ripening time, starter culture, fat content, and water content cannot explain this difference.

Nutritional Quality of Plant-Based Cheese Available in Spanish Supermarkets: How Do They Compare to Dairy Cheese?

Plant-based cheese is one of the most increasingly consumed dairy alternatives. Evidence is lacking on their nutritional quality. We aimed to evaluate the nutritional composition of the plant-based cheese options available in Spanish supermarkets, and how they compare with dairy cheese. An audit of plant-based cheese alternatives has been conducted in seven of the most common supermarkets. For each product, the nutritional content per 100 g and ingredients were collected. Data on generic dairy cheese were retrieved from the BEDCA website. Descriptive statistics (median, minimum and maximum) were used to characterize the plant-based cheese products, for both all the products and grouped by main ingredients (i.e., coconut oil, cashew nuts and tofu). Mann–Whitney U tests were used for comparisons between dairy and different types of plant-based cheese. The coconut oil-based products (the large majority of plant-based cheese products, n = 34) could not be considered as healthy foods. Their major ingredients were refined coconut oil and starches and were high in saturated fats and salt. The other smaller groups, cashew nut- (n = 4) and tofu-based (n = 2), showed a healthier nutritional profile. Replacing dairy cheese with these groups could be nutritionally beneficial. Future investigations should address the health effects of substituting dairy cheese with these products.

Development of an internal traceability chain in the production of functional cottage cheese products

The article represents the results of the development of an internal chain of traceability in the production of cottage cheese products for functional purposes, allowing for the identification of products and documentation of measures to ensure the quality and safety of cottage cheese products.

From armchair to table: online supermarkets as potential post-pandemic tourist attractions

Food consumption is one of the most popular leisure and tourist activities, and is essential when traveling. This article discusses online supermarkets as a food tourism attraction in the context of the pandemic-related crisis, which is increasingly dominated by digital tourism and virtual travel. The study specifically focuses on online cheese tourism. The author analyses the cheese offering of an online supermarket in Spain, consisting of 120 kinds of cheese products. Results reveal the potential of online cheese tourism, predominantly based on quality cheeses. Various types of cheeses are described, with emphasis on their country of origin. The article contributes to the conceptualisation of digital food tourism practices in post-pandemic tourism. Online supermarkets are not only potential tourist attractions but they could also contribute to the growth of specific forms of food tourism, such as cheese tourism. The author argues that virtual experience is a driver of future trends in food tourism.

Development of “New” Bread and Cheese

Bread and cheese have been a popular combination since early times. Indeed, the history of bread dates back to 8000 BC and that of cheese to 7200 BC. However, new types of breads and cheeses are increasingly popular for several reasons, such as allergies, lifestyles, economy and religion. The major challenge is that food manufacturers are offering new products most of which are not welcomed by consumers. Therefore, recently, researchers have placed importance on their relationships with consumers to boost the success of new products. This short review summarizes the backgrounds of recent trends, processes, and principles to manufacture new bread and cheese products, and discusses future perspectives. The development of additive-free, gluten-free rice bread we have recently done from basic research to commercialization of the products is highly focused in this review. Additionally, ongoing studies on plant-based cheeses are introduced from material selection to suggest future outlooks.

Rapid Discrimination of Cheese Products Based on Probabilistic Neural Network and Raman Spectroscopy

The aim of this work is to solve the practical problem that there are relatively few fast, intelligent, and objective methods to distinguish dairy products and to further improve the quality control methods of them. Therefore, an approach of cheese product brand discrimination method based on Raman spectroscopy and probabilistic neural network algorithm was developed. The experimental results show that the spectrum contains abundant molecular vibration information of carbohydrates, fats, proteins, and other components, and the Raman spectral data collection time of a single sample is only 100 s. Due to the high spectral similarity between samples, it is impossible to identify them with naked eyes. Characteristic peak intensity combined with statistical process control method was employed to study the fluctuation characteristics of samples. The results show that the characteristic peak of experimental samples fluctuates within a certain control limit. However, due to the high similarity between the Raman spectra of different brand samples, they cannot be effectively identified as well. This paper further studied and established the analytical approach based on Raman spectroscopy, including wavelet denoising, normalization, principal component analysis, and probabilistic neural network discrimination. In db1 wavelet processing, [−1, 1] normalization, 74 principal components (cumulative contribution rate of 100%) can realize the effective discrimination of different brands of cheese products in 1 s, with the average recognition accuracy of 96%. The discriminant method established in this work has the advantages of simple operation, rapid analysis, and accurate results. It provides a technical reference for the fight against counterfeit products and has a broad application prospect.