Species origin of milk in Italian mozzarella and Greek feta cheese

Several animal species such as cattle, goats, sheep, and water buffalo provide milk for dairy products. We describe a simple procedure for detecting the species origin of milk used for cheese production. DNA was isolated from Italian mozzarella or Greek feta by sequential organic extractions and resin purification. This DNA was analyzed by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism as described previously for meat samples. This procedure differentiated mozzarella made from water buffalo milk and from less expensive bovine milk and also feta cheeses made from bovine, ovine, and caprine milk.