Seasonal differences in fatty acid content of white brine cheese offered at the Bulgarian market

The present study provides scientific information for fatty acid composition of white brine cheese from cow milk, produced from all regions of Bulgaria, across seasons for the period 2012–2016. A total of 670 samples produced from different manufacturers and collected from supermarkets by Offi-cial control of Bulgarian Food Safety Agency (BFSA) were examined. Fatty acid composition was determined by gas chromatography. The milk fat purity of 18 samples was established through gas chromatographic analysis of triglycerides. Seasonal variations were observed in fatty acid composi-tion of white brine cheese. The seasonal changes in the concentration of lauric, myristic, palmitic, stearic, oleic and α-linolenic acids have largely contributed to the variation of fatty acid composition of cheese. Saturated fatty acids (SFAs) were in the range 68.39–71.53% of total FAs and the propor-tion of unsaturated fatty acids (UFA) was 28.44–31.61% of total FAs. Fourty-five out of examined samples have exhibited different fatty acid profile than that established in the present study for cow milk cheese. The determined SFAs were 44.7–57.5% and UFA varied from 42.5% to 55.3%. The fatty acids with short chain (C4:0 ÷ C10:0) were not detected or in traces, lauric and myristic acids were in small amounts, while palmitic and oleic acids predominated in the fatty acid composition of cheese analogues