The influence of ripening temperature and sampling site on the lipolysis in Reggianito Argentino cheese Guillermo A. Sihufe a , Susana E. Zorrilla a , Diego J. Mercanti b , Marı ´a C. Perotti b , Carlos A. Zalazar b , Amelia C. Rubiolo a, * a Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnolo ´ gico para la Industria Quı ´mica (INTEC)-Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientı ´ficas y Te ´cnicas (CONICET), Universidad Nacional del Litoral (UNL)-Gu ¨ emes 3450 (S3000GLN), Santa Fe, Argentina b Instituto de Lactologı ´a Industrial (INLAIN)-Facultad de Ingenierı ´a Quı ´mica, Universidad Nacional del Litoral-Santiago del Estero 2829 (S3000AOM), Santa Fe, Argentina Received 16 April 2007; accepted 21 July 2007 Abstract The effect of ripening temperature elevation and sampling site on lipolysis in Reggianito Argentino cheese was evaluated. Cheeses ripened at 12 or 18 °C and 85% relative humidity were assayed at 2, 4 and 6 months at two sampling zones (central and external). Sam- ples were analysed to determine physicochemical parameters and the concentration of nine free fatty acids (FFAs) (C 6:0 –C 18:2 ). Myristic, palmitic, stearic and oleic acids were found in higher concentration. While ripening time and temperature significantly affected the con- centrations of the nine FFAs analysed, sampling zone significantly affected only two FFAs. Ripening temperature increased the lipolytic process, but it seems to have no effect on the pathways of lipolysis in Reggianito Argentino cheese. Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Reggianito Argentino; Cheese; Lipolysis; FFAs; Ripening; Temperature 1. Introduction Cheese flavour is a complex mixture of perhaps several hundred-flavour components that appear during ripening. Due to this period commonly is long and therefore, expen- sive, different studies to accelerate ripening have been car- ried out, the elevation of ripening temperature being the simplest method. However, considering the numerous com- plex biochemical reactions that occur during ripening, it is unlikely that all process will be accelerated equally at ele- vated temperatures and unbalanced flavour or off-flavours may result (Fox et al., 1996). In 2005, Argentina produced 4 · 10 5 ton of cheese and was among the top ten world’s exporters (SAGPYA, 2007). Reggianito Argentino cheese is one of the well- known Argentinean cheeses. Italian immigrants in late XIX and early XX centuries inspired by Italian hard cheeses, developed it, and later the technologies were mod- ified and adapted to give a distinctive product. Reggianito Argentino cheese has higher moisture and fat contents, and a shorter ripening period than Italian hard cheeses (Zala- zar, Meinardi, & Hynes, 1999). CAA (2007) specifies that Reggianito Argentino cheese must have a cylindrical shape, 5–10 kg weight, low moisture content (< 35.9%), a mini- mum fat-in-dry matter of 32%, and a minimum ripening period of 6 months. Reggianito Argentino cheese is manu- factured with pasteurised cow milk and natural whey star- ter mainly composed by Lactobacillus helveticus (66%) and Lactobacillus delbrueckii sub sp. lactis (33%) (Reinheimer, Quiberoni, Tailliez, Binetti, & Sua ´rez, 1996). Generally it is ripened at 11–13 °C and 82–85% relative humidity. Some authors have studied the effect of technological changes during Reggianito Argentino cheese manufacture 0963-9969/$ - see front matter Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.foodres.2007.07.003 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +54 342 4511595; fax: +54 342 4550944. E-mail address: arubiolo@intec.unl.edu.ar (A.C. Rubiolo). www.elsevier.com/locate/foodres Food Research International 40 (2007) 1220–1226