Effects of freeze-drying and spray-drying on donkey milk volatile compounds and whey proteins stability

•Volatile compounds on donkey milk has been determined for the first time.•Potential markers of donkey milk shelf life have been determined.•Freeze-drying process does not alter donkey's milk whey protein content.•Spray-drying process affects lysozyme activity and β-lactoglobulin content.

In this work, the profile of the volatile compounds has been determined for the first time in fresh donkey milk and in donkey milk subjected to accelerated shelf-life test, freeze-drying and spray-drying processes. The effects of freeze-drying and spray-drying processes in donkey milk have been analyzed also on three representative whey proteins, β-lactoglobulin, α-lactalbumin and lysozyme, by determining the total amount, the enzymatic activity and the thermal stability. Considering the volatile compounds in fresh donkey milk, 2-heptanone, 1,3-bis (1,1-dimethylethyl)-benzene, nonanal, d-limonene, octanoic acid, and 1-octanol were detected. The accelerated shelf-life test revealed a constant increase of octanoic acid, 2-heptanone, and nonanal compared to fresh donkey milk (P < 0.001) and the appearance of ethyl octanoate, ethyl dodecanoate, 2-nonanone and 2-undecanone, indicating that these compounds may be highly eligible markers of donkey milk shelf-life. Freeze-drying and spray-drying affected β-lactoglobulin and lysozyme content in donkey milk. In particular, spray-drying process decreased significantly lysozyme enzymatic activity (58% of residual activity) and β-lactoglobulin content (6.43 mg/mL in fresh milk vs 5.51 mg/mL in spry-dried milk) due to the high temperature to which donkey milk is subjected.