Graviera is a very popular yellow hard cheese produced in mainland Greece and the Aegean islands, and in three PDO (protected denomination of origin) locations. Apart from geographic location, type of milk and production practices are also factors that affect cheese composition, and make this dairy product unique in taste and aroma. In this work, 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy in combination with chemometrics has been used to determine the metabolite profile (40 compounds) of graviera cheese produced in different geographic locations, with emphasis on cheeses produced on the island of Crete. Organic acids and amino acids were the main components quantified in the polar cheese fraction, while the fatty acid (FA) composition of the lipid fraction was also obtained. Analysis of variance (Anova) of the dataset showed that γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), conjugated linoleic acids (CLA) and linoleic acid differentiate gravieras produced in different areas of Crete, and that the total amino acid content was higher in cheeses produced in eastern Crete. Targeted discriminant analysis models classified gravieras produced in mainland Greece, Cyclades and Crete based on differences in 1,2-diglycerides, sterols, GABA and FA composition. Targeted and untargeted orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) models were capable of differentiating gravieras produced in the island of Crete and hold promise as the basis for the authentication of PDO graviera products.
Keywords: NMR spectroscopy; amino acids; fatty acids; graviera cheese; metabolite profile; metabolomics; multivariate analysis.