Vita Maria Marino 1, Teresa Rapisarda 1, Margherita Caccamo 1, Bernardo Valenti 2, Alessandro Priolo 3,Giuseppe Luciano 3, Antonio Natalello 3,*, Adriana Campione 2 and Mariano Pauselli 3

1 Consorzio per la Ricerca nel settore della Filiera Lattiero-Casearia e dell’agroalimentare (CoRFiLaC), S.P. 25 km 5 Ragusa Mare, 97100 Ragusa, Italy; v.marino@corfilac.it (V.M.M.); rapisarda@corfilac.it (T.R.); caccamo@corfilac.it (M.C.)

2 Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie, Alimentari ed Ambientali, Università degli Studi di Perugia, Borgo XX Giugno 74, 06123 Perugia, Italy; bernardo.valenti@unipg.it (B.V.); adriana.campione@studenti.unipg.it (A.C.)
3 Dipartimento di Agricoltura, Alimentazione e Ambiente, Università degli Studi di Catania, Via Valdisavoia 5, 95123 Catania, Italy; a.priolo@unict.it (A.P.); giuseppe.luciano@unict.it (G.L.);mariano.pauselli@unipg.it (M.P.)

* Correspondence: antonio.natalello@unict.it

Hazelnut peel (HNP), a by-product from the chocolate industry, is considered to be a suitable ingredient to be included in the diet of ruminants. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of feeding dairy ewes with a diet containing HNP on ripened cheese quality, including fatty acid (FA) profile, cholesterol, and tocopherol content, as well as stability during storage under commercial conditions. In total, 10 experimental cheeses were produced with bulk milk obtained from ewes fed a commercial concentrate (C group; n = 5) or a concentrate containing 36% HNP in dry matter (HNP group; n = 5). After 40 days of aging, each cheese was sub-sampled into three slices: one was analyzed immediately (C0 and HNP0), and the other two were refrigerated and analyzed after seven days (C7 and HNP7) and 14 days (C14 and HNP14), respectively. Compared to C, HNP cheese had more than twice as many tocopherols and mono-unsaturated FA and respectively 38% and 24% less of cholesterol and saturated FA. Tocopherols and cholesterol levels remained rather stable up to 14 days of storage regardless of the experimental group, suggesting no cholesterol oxidation. Therefore, the inclusion of HNP in ewe diets could be a valid resource to produce cheese with a healthier lipid profile and higher tocopherols content.

Keywords: cholesterol; ewe cheese; fatty acids; hazelnut peels; tocopherols

Antioxidants 2021, 10, 538. https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox10040538