Quantitative LC-MS/MS analysis of high-value milk proteins in Danish Holstein cows

High-value milk proteins, which can be obtained by optimized fractionation procedures, are ideal ingredients in many food applications. Thus, a simple and robust analytical method is required for the identification and quantification of these individual milk proteins. Here, we present a liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method using multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) to simultaneously detect and measure target peptides of two major milk proteins, α-lactalbumin (α-LA) and β-casein (β-CN), in raw milk samples from 662 Danish Holstein cows. The MRM quantification of α-LA and β-CN was achieved with limit of detection (LOD) of 0.14 and 0.16 g/L, respectively and reproducibility of the assay <15%. By this newly established MRM-based method, the concentration of α-LA and β-CN in an individual cow's milk ranged from 0.5 to 1.9 (average 1.1) g/L, and from 7.5 to 23.4 (average 15) g/L, respectively. There was no significant effect of parity, whereas significantly increasing concentrations of α-LA and β-CN were observed through lactation (P < 0.001). This shows a considerable biological variation of these two ingredient milk proteins, providing potential varying outputs of fractionation in the dairy streams.