Research about protein composition of "ricotta" on sale to put in evidenceextraneous proteins to production technology: nutritional, hygienical-sanitary, legislative, and labelling aspects

"Ricotta" is considered a precious food for its nutritional and dietetic ch aracteristics and it plays a very important role in modern diet. In order t o satisfy the increasing demand of ricotta, the traditional technology of p roduction has been modified adding milk to whey ("fortification"). Such a k ind of addition grants higher productions and an improvement of organolepti c characteristics, but alters the protein composition of the product. The electtrophoresis technique SDS page gradient 8-18 has been used in orde r to quantify the possible mixture of milk to whey. The results have shown a fortification of whey with milk in a large number of samples; often it wa s about 40% and more. The Authors, in comparing the results obtained with the composition reporte d in the label, have often noticed disaccordance and misleading pubblicity. Consequently they suggest the emanation of specific norms and standards in order to protect ricotta's quality.