Health-Promoting Ingredients in Goat’s Milk and Fermented Goat’s Milk Drinks

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Goat’s milk has beneficial effects on health condition maintenance, physiological function, and nutrition of both children and elderly people, and according to some authors, can be consumed without inducing adverse symptoms by people suffering from cow milk allergy. The content of bioactive ingredients (fatty acids, vitamins, micro, and macroelements) in goat’s milk and its products varies greatly and depends on many factors, for example, breed, animal husbandry conditions, lactation phase, and feeding. The nutritional importance of goat’s milk increases in response to the growing interest of consumers. In Poland, the commercial offer of goat’s milk products increases constantly. Local breeders and sellers appear on the market, offering their products, often of organic origin. Despite the growing popularity of goat products, the knowledge of their composition, including their health-promoting ingredients, is still incomplete. Therefore, the present study aimed to determine the contents of selected compounds, such as fatty acids, with particular emphasis on the content of cis9trans11 C18:2 (CLA) acid, minerals, and folates, in organic and commercial goat’s milk and fermented goat’s milk drinks available on the Polish market. ABSTRACT: The present study aimed to determine the content of health-promoting compounds, and fatty acids, with particular emphasis on the content of cis9trans11 C18:2 (CLA) acid, selected minerals, folates in organic and commercial goat’s milk and fermented goat’s milk drinks. The analyzed milk and yoghurts had various contents of particular groups of fatty acids, CLA, minerals, and folates. Raw organic goat’s milk had a significantly (p < 0.05) higher content of CLA (3.26 mg/g fat) compared to commercial milk (2.88 mg/g fat and 2.54 mg/g fat). Among the analyzed fermented goat’s milk drinks, the highest CLA content (4.39 mg/g fat) was determined in commercial natural yoghurts, while the lowest one was in organic natural yoghurts (3.28 mg/g fat). The highest levels of calcium (1322.9–2324.4 µg/g), phosphorus (8148.1–11,309.9 µg/g), and copper (0.072–0.104 µg/g) were found in all commercial products and those of manganese (0.067–0.209 µg/g) in organic products. The contents of the other assayed elements (magnesium, sodium, potassium, iron, and zinc) did not depend on the production method, but only on the product type, i.e., the degree of goat’s milk processing. The highest folate content in the analyzed milks was found in the organic sample (3.16 µg/100 g). Organic Greek yoghurts had a several times higher content of folates, reaching 9.18 µg/100 g, compared to the other analyzed fermented products.