Long-Term Ripening Evaluation of Ewes’ Cheeses by Fourier-Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy under Real Industrial Conditions

Table 1

Physicochemical characterization of Pecorino (2nd month), Gouda (2nd month), and ewes’ ripe (1st month) cheeses. Values obtained from duplicates and expressed as percentages ± standard deviation.

Cheese	Moisture (%)	Total protein (%)	FDM (%)
Pecorino (2 months)	27.6 ± 0.1^a	26.886 ± 0.1^a	53.5 ± 0.4^a
Gouda (2 months)	36.0 ± 0.0^b	19.916 ± 0.1^b	58.2 ± 0.4^b
Ewes’ ripe (1 month)	43.0 ± 0.1^c	21.936 ± 0.1^c	56.2 ± 0.0^c
p value	0.004494	0.000001	0.000000

FDM: fat in dry matter. Superscript letters were used to indicate the group classification. Ripening time. Means without a common letter are significantly different ().