Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) for the determination of the milk fat fatty acid profile of goats.

Milk fatty acid (FA) composition is important for the goat dairy industry because of its influence on cheese properties and human health. The aim of the present work was to evaluate the feasibility of NIRS reflectance (oven-dried milk using the DESIR method) and transflectance (liquid milk) analysis to predict milk FA profile and groups of fats in milk samples from individual goats. NIRS analysis of milk samples allowed to estimate FA contents and their ratios and indexes in fat with high precision and accuracy. In general, transflectance analysis gave better or similar results than reflectance mode. Interestingly, NIRS analysis allowed direct prediction of the Atherogenicity and Thrombogenicity indexes, which are useful for the interpretation of the nutritional value of goat milk. Therefore, the calibrations obtained in the present work confirm the viability of NIRS as a fast, reliable and effective analytical method to provide nutritional information of milk samples.