New functional milk-based products in the Italian market

The aim of this study is to obtain an overview, from a chemical and a nutritional point of view, of functional products such as lactose-hydrolysed milk, milk with added probiotics, prebiotics and vitamins, probiotic fermented milk, and synbiotic fermented milk. For this purpose, six samples of lactose-hydrolysed UHT milk and two samples of milk with added functional ingredients, seven probiotic and four synbiotic fermented milk samples, have been studied. In lactose-hydrolysed milk samples, proximate composition, vitamins A, E and cholesterol contents have not shown significant differences, with the obvious exception of a skimmed milk sample containing small amounts of fat and related compounds. The other samples have shown a large compositional variability, and, in particular, cholesterol ranged from 3.6 to 12.7 mg/100 g, vitamin E ranged from 2.1 to 3300 μg/100 g and vitamin A ranged from 3.5 to 182.0 Retinol Equivalents (μg/100 g).Lactose levels ranged from 0.26 to 0.77 g/100 g in lactose-hydrolysed milk samples and from 2.32 to 4.55 g/100 g in the other milk samples.