EVALUATION OF DIGESTIBILITY AND ALLERGENICITY OF BUFFALA MILK IN COMPARISON TO COW MILK AND COW MILK A2
milk, buffalo milk, A2 milk, protein digestibility, milk allergicity
Milk is an important protein-base food in the diet of children and adults in many countries and the milk proteins are considered as having a high nutritional value. However, milk is also one of the most allergenic food, especially considering casein and whey protein. Studies show that the allergenicity and digestibility of milk from other non-bovine species, such as buffalo, can be beneficial to allergic consumers or to those who poorly digest casein, as these milks present only the allele A2 in the β-casein, which does not generate an important compound known as β-casomorphine-7. Therefore, the aim of this study is to evaluate the in vitro allergenicity and the digestibility of buffalo milk proteins, comparing them to conventional cow´s milk the milk from cows that do not contain the A1 allele of β-casein (A2 milk). In this sense, experiments that simulate the human in vitro digestion will be performed, where the evaluation of the protein digestibility will be done through colorimetric techniques and electrophoresis. The in vitro allergenicity will be evaluated through the quantification of immunoreactive proteins based on enzyme immunoassay test. Thus, it is expected that by the end of this study, it will be possible to draw a comparative study of digestibility and allergenicity among bovine, bovine A2 and buffalo milks.