Soremartec Italia Srl, Ferrero Group, Alba, CN, Italy.
Laboratory of Clinical Chemistry, Hospital Pio XI of Desio, ASST-Brianza and School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano Bicocca, Monza, Italy.
PLoS One. 2023 Apr 20;18(4):e0284691. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0284691. eCollection 2023.
Non-enzymatic cholesterol oxidation products (COPs) are nowadays receiving increasing attention in food technology for their potential use as biomarkers of freshness and safety in raw materials and complex food matrices, as well as markers of cholesterol oxidation during the production and shelf-life of end products. Here reported is the investigation of how long three prototype milk chocolates containing whole milk powders (WMPs) of increasing shelf-lives (i.e. 20, 120, and 180 days), could be safely stored in the market by adopting the non-enzymatic COPs as a quality markers. In addition, the protective effect of two different primary packaging, sealed and unsealed ones, in mitigating the generation of non-enzymatic COPs in three prototype milk chocolates after 3, 6, 9, 12 months of shelf-life was assessed to simulate two real storage conditions. Quantifying oxysterols' levels by mass spectrometry, the oxygen impermeable packaging (PLUS) resulted to significantly quench the non-enzymatic COPs production up to 34% as to that found in the same product but with unsealed standard packaging (STD). This study represents one practical application of non-enzymatic COPs as a reliable tool for corrective strategies to prevent food oxidation.
非酶胆固醇氧化产物（COPs）在食品技术中越来越受到关注，因为它们可能被用作原材料和复杂食品基质新鲜度和安全性的生物标志物，以及在终产品生产和保质期内胆固醇氧化的标志物。本研究报告了采用非酶 COPs 作为质量标志物，调查三种含有全脂乳粉（WMP）的原型牛奶巧克力（货架期分别为 20、120 和 180 天）可以在市场上安全储存多久。此外，还评估了两种不同的初级包装（密封和非密封）在模拟两种实际储存条件下，在 3、6、9 和 12 个月货架期后减少三种原型牛奶巧克力中非酶 COPs 生成的保护作用。通过质谱法定量测定氧化甾醇水平，结果表明，氧气不可渗透包装（PLUS）可将非酶 COPs 的生成量抑制高达 34%，与具有非密封标准包装（STD）的相同产品中的生成量相比。本研究代表了非酶 COPs 作为一种可靠工具，用于防止食品氧化的纠正策略的实际应用。
