Chemometrics for the Identification of Nitrogen and Acid Compounds in Milk-Whey as By-Products from Crescenza and Grana Padano Type Cheese-Making

Abstract

Proteomics and metabolomics are analytic tools used in combination with bioinformatics to study proteins and metabolites which contribute to describing complex biological systems. The growing interest in research concerning the resolution of these systems has stimulated the development of sophisticated procedures and new applications. This paper introduces the evolution of statistical techniques for the treatment of data, suggesting the possibility to successfully characterize the milk-whey syneresis process by applying two-dimensional correlation analysis (2DCOR) to a series of CE electropherograms referring to milk-whey samples collected during cheese manufacturing. Two cheese-making processes to produce hard cheese (Grana type) and fresh cheese (Crescenza) were taken as models. The applied chemometric tools were shown to be useful for the treatment of data acquired in a systematically perturbed chemical system as a function of time.

Keywords

• two-dimensional correlation analysis
• capillary electrophoresis
• proteomics
• milk-whey