Impact of a Shorter Brine Soaking Time on Nutrient Bioaccessibility and Peptide Formation in 30-Months-Ripened Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese

• Published in: Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 27; no. 3; p. 664
• Main Authors: Di Nunzio, Mattia, Loffi, Cecilia, Chiarello, Elena, Dellafiora, Luca, Picone, Gianfranco, Antonelli, Giorgia, Di Gregorio, Clarissa, Capozzi, Francesco, Tedeschi, Tullia, Galaverna, Gianni, Bordoni, Alessandra
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 20-01-2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Amino acids; bioaccessibility; bioactive peptides; Bioavailability; Biological activity; Blood pressure; Brines; Cheese; Cheese - analysis; Dairy products; Digestion; Digestive system; Evaluation; Fatty acids; Food; Food Handling - methods; Gastrointestinal tract; Health risks; Humans; in vitro digestion; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Nutrients - analysis; Parmigiano Reggiano cheese; Peptide Biosynthesis; Peptides; Proteins; Salt; Salts; Salts - metabolism; Soaking; Sodium; Sodium Chloride; Solubility; Strategy; Water - chemistry; bioactive peptides; Parmigiano Reggiano cheese; bioaccessibility; in vitro digestion
• ISSN: 1420-3049; 1420-3049
• DOI: 10.3390/molecules27030664

Reducing the salt content in food is an important nutritional strategy for decreasing the risk of diet-related diseases. This strategy is particularly effective when applied to highly appreciated food having good nutritional characteristics, if it does not impact either upon sensory or nutritional properties of the final product. This work aimed at evaluating if the reduction of salt content by decreasing the brine soaking time modifies fatty acid and protein bioaccessibility and bioactive peptide formation in a 30-month-ripened Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (PRC). Hence, conventional and hyposodic PRC underwent in vitro static gastrointestinal digestion, and fatty acid and protein bioaccessibility were assessed. The release of peptide sequences during digestion was followed by LC-HRMS, and bioactive peptides were identified using a bioinformatic approach. At the end of digestion, fatty acid and protein bioaccessibility were similar in conventional and hyposodic PRC, but most of the bioactive peptides, mainly the ACE-inhibitors, were present in higher concentrations in the low-salt cheese. Considering that the sensory profiles were already evaluated as remarkably similar in conventional and hyposodic PRC, our results confirmed that shortening brine soaking time represents a promising strategy to reduce salt content in PRC.