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Fortification
of Edible oils
Rationale:
During last decades, an important change in eating habits
has taken place in many countries. The use of vegetable oils
in the form of shortening, Vegetable ghee and margarine has
climbed year by year; and today they contribute significantly
to daily calorie intake.
These products, which are of vegetable origin, replaced the
fat products based on milk fat and gained a certain importance
in the food market. As is well known, these products are in
many respects equal to or even superior to, some traditional
fat products. There is only one little difference which has,
however, an enormous impact on the nutritional value of the
fats and oils: the content of Vitamins.
Milk fat and the products (butter, ghee) derived from it,
used to be the most important suppliers of the vitamin A.
As these products are replaced today by vegetable oils, fat
based preparations which do not contain Vitamin A, the consumers
are cut off from the major dietary source of Vitamin A. Consequently,
marginal and even severe Vitamin deficiency develop in the
population. In order to reverse this phenomenon, Fortification
of edible fats and oils with Vitamin A has become pressing
issue. Margarine’s, due to the dramatic Vitamin deficiency
in Denmark in the early 20s, are now fortified with Vitamins
in practically in all countries. As far edible oils and fats
of vegetable origin are concerned, the situation is still
different.
There are few countries prescribing the fortification by law,
in some others it is done voluntarily. The industries are
also joining in to fortify, however, in some countries there
is still large amounts of vegetable oils and fats on the market
which are not fortified. The vitamin A deficiency found in
the same countries prove that fortification with the vitamins
has to become general practice.
Milk fat and the products (butter, ghee) derived from it,
used to be the most important suppliers of the vitamin A.
As these products are replaced today by vegetable oils, fat
based preparations which do not contain Vitamin A, the consumers
are cut off from the major dietary source of Vitamin A. Consequently,
marginal and even severe Vitamin deficiency develop in the
population. In order to reverse this phenomenon, Fortification
of edible fats and oils with Vitamin A has become pressing
issue. Margarine’s, due to the dramatic Vitamin deficiency
in
Technical Data :
Which Vitamins ?
According to the above rationale, the Vitamin A is the most
important which have to be used in all the Vegetable fats
and oils as fortificant.
How much is added?
The fat soluble vitamin A, which is present in Milk fat, can
be easily added to vegetable oils/ fats. It is suggested that
Vitamin A palmitate 1.7 MIU/gm to be used at the rate of 60IU/gm
for best results.
Stability of the Vitamins:
The stability of Vitamin A is present in oils and fats depends
on the stability of the oil and fat itself. It can be assumed
that there is a direct relationship between the stability
of the vitamins and the oxidation status (peroxide value of
fats /oils). The higher the peroxide value (the less the fat
is fit for human consumption) the greater will be the loss
of the vitamins. In other terms, a fat or oil which is oxidized
and therefore unacceptable/ unsuitable for human consumption
will also have lost large part of the vitamin content originally
present.
The stability (retention) of Vitamin A in fats and oils also
depends on the quality used for fortification. With a certain
amount of oxidative fat components, a given amount of vitamin
A will react. That means, that at low addition rate of vitamin
A (e.g. 25-35,000IU/Kg) the percentage of loss will be higher
than at a reasonably high addition rate (e.g. 60 – 70. During
storage and distribution of the fats and oils some of the
vitamin a is destroyed and it can be assumed that with good
quality oils and fats properly stabilized with natural oxidants,
the storage loss of vitamins will generally not exceed 10%
, even at elevated storage temperatures.
In the deep frying process part of the oil penetrates the
fried goods and will be protected by them. Therefore the loss
of the vitamin A in the oil which penetrated into the fried
products will be about 10%. It is important to note that during
the deep frying process the dishes fried in fats and oils
take up to about 40% of their weight on fat and oil which,
as described before, will be relatively protected. Only the
amount of oil remaining in the fryer, which will be heated
for prolonged time at high temperature, will show somewhat
higher loss of vitamins. The relatively good stability of
the vitamin A even in cooking fats proves the sound rationale
why these vitamins should be added also to cooking fats and
not only to margarine and vegetable oils.
Conclusion:
The still wide spread deficiencies of Vitamin A on the one
hand and availability of Vitamins at moderate prices at the
other hand, prompts the fortification of fats and oils as
one of the most important nutrition interventions in order
to improve the vitamin supply of the whole population dramatically.
Cost of Fortification
Product Used : NicoRich A Oil - VA
Rate of Addition : 100 IU / gm
Available to Consumer : 60 IU/ gm
Price : Rs . 5627.24 /- per Kilo basic + applicable taxes.
Cost of Fortification : Approximately 20 paise ( basic) per
litre of oil.
Incremental Cost to the consumer:
Per capita consumption of oil by consumer = 9 Kg of oil
There fore incremental cost to customer = 9 * 0.20
= Rs. 1.80/- per annum.
(Which is very marginal)
Newsletter
Edible oil may fill Vitamin A scarcity
Economic Times
By : Prasenjit Bhattacharya , New Delhi 2nd March,2000
Vitamin A deficiency, that can even lead to blindness, may be a thing in the past if efforts by scientists round the world to fortify edible oil with micro – nutrient bear fruit. Scientists Varghese Abraham and Yukio Kakuda Say: " Fortification of edible oil with Vitamin A is a vital step towards improving nutritional status of populations in developing countries."
According to WHO estimates, around 80 million Indians are at a risk from Vitamin A deficiency. Nutritional surveys have shown that in both rural and urban India, populations are consuming less than 50 percent of the required level of vitamin A.
A Micronutrient Initiative, Canada, scientist Venkatesh Mannar says: " While some commercial products as well foods for schools are fortified, there is no broad effort to achieve population wide reduction of Vitamin A deficiency through food fortification. "Fortifying edible oil with Vitamin A has two advantages, says Mr. Mannar. One, the universal use of oil would ensure the Micronutrient reaches a significant population, two, low cost. Oil consumption in India , studies indicate , has gone up by more than one- third in the last five years to an average of 9 Kg / person / year. This, say scientists, is a figure high enough for edible oil to be used as a medium for carrying Vitamin A.
The amount of oil consumption needs to be high for effective fortification as around 50 percent of vitamin can get lost in the process of cooking, says Mr. Mannar.
As far as costs go , it can work out to Rs.200 – 250 per metric tonne for producer while for consumer, it won’t represent a cost of more than Rs. 1.5 –2 per person per year. Eminently affordable.
In the oil seeds processing conference in Delhi, Nicholas Piramal Scientists Dr. A.G. Seshadrinathan and N.V. Shinde presented a paper on the various aspects of Vitamin A fortification in edible oils. Concurring with Mannar, they note, " Edible oil fortified with Vitamin A leads to high value addition." They have conducted study on the various aspects of fortification with the commonly available oil brands in the market. According to scientist Varghese Abraham, a successful fortification needs political support, industrial cooperation and consumer acceptance.
One concern, however, remains. Stability of vitamin A in the cooking and storage countries in the various countries. A massive multination research programme is being carried out to provide information, which some believe would dispel all doubts about Vitamin A fortification and convince policy – makers to spring into action in this area.
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