Evaluation of quality of butter from different provenance

Nutritional quality of commercial butters

Abstract The consumption and consequent production of butter has increased considerably in recent years. In order to know the butters sold in Brazil, the study aimed to analyze butters of Brazilian, French, Italian and Argentine origin. The samples were analyzed for fat content, moisture, Defatted Dry Extract (DDE), and total acidity for comparison with Brazilian legislation. The levels of chlorides, protein, ash, total dry extract, water activity, color and determination of the lipid profile were also determined. In all analyses, there was a statistically significant difference between the samples. Some samples showed disagreement with the quality requirements recommended in Brazilian legislation for commercialization. Indeed, 10 samples did not present the minimum fat content required, varying from 68.53% to 77.31% in butters with salt and from 71.64% to 81.72% in those without salt. Eight samples presented humidity levels above the legal recommendations, varying from 17.05% to 20.28%. All products were in agreement with acidity levels. The predominant fatty acids in all samples were myristic acid (C14: 0), palmitic acid (C16: 0), stearic acid (C18: 0) and oleic acid (C18: 1n9). The regional influence, breed and handling of the animals and season of the year in which the milk was obtained for butter production, were suggested to be the main reason for the physical-chemical difference found between the samples.

Determination of Cholesterol Content in Butter by HPLC: Up-to-Date Optimization, and In-House Validation Using Reference Materials

This work deals with up-to-date optimization of cholesterol content determination when saponification and extraction procedures as well as HPLC conditions were studied. As found, optimal conditions for saponification process were identified by 15 min heating in the presence of 0.015 L of methanolic KOH solution with a concentration 1 mol/L with subsequent 0.015 L n-hexane–chloroform binary mixture (1:1, v/v) double extraction. HPLC separation consisted of isocratic elution with flow rate of 0.5 mL/min mobile phase composed of acetonitrile/methanol 60:40 (v/v) and stationary phase Zorbax Eclipse Plus C18 column 2.1 × 100 mm, 3.5 μm particle size diameters with detector wavelength 205 nm. The method passed through in-house validation criteria and its suitability was verified by analysis of butter reference materials. In final, the average content of cholesterol content in butter was determined at 2271.0 mg/kg. Thus, the method is suitable for the determination of cholesterol content in butter and probably also in other dairy products.