Project: Potential improvement of the salutary effects of organic milk by forage

Dairy milk and milk products have been challenged due to their relatively high concentration of saturatedfatty acids (SFA) and, therefore, are considered to be associated with cardio-vascular disease (Pedersenet al., 2004) and cancer. However, recent research has revealed a number of ingredients in milk that may be salutary. Among these bioactive components are phytoestrogens (e.g. lignans and isoflavonoids), fatty acids (FA, e.g. c9t11 C18:2 (CLA)), vitamins (e.g. vitamin A and E), and endogenous hormones and growth factors (e.g. estradiol, IGF-I and TGF-β). Due to a higher proportion of forage in the ration, with high proportion of legumes and other herbs, organic milk quality is more and differently affected by the forage than conventionally produced milk that often is based on grass silage. There is limited knowledge regarding chemical and sensory characteristics of organic dairy milk internationally that has focused on organic grassland management and the milk salutary properties. The objectives of the proposed project were to: - investigate how different forage species affect the fatty acid composition of organic dairy milk, and the milk content of bioactive components such as tocopherols, carotenoids, selenium (Se) and phytoestrogens - investigate the biological activity of the collected dairy milk samples from the Nordic countries on normal and cancer cells

Acronym	PHYTOMILK
Duration	01/01/2007 - 30/06/2011
Website	visit project website
Network	CORE Organic
Call	CORE-ORGANIC Pilot Call

Project partner

Name	Role	Country
Aarhus University - Faculty of Agricultural Sciences		Denmark
Ministry of Agriculture and Food - Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research		Norway
Norwegian University of Life Sciences		Norway
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences	Coordinator	Sweden
University of Eastern Finland - Faculty of Biosciences		Finland