Alpha Tocopherol Content of Selected Catering Products

Abstract

Alpha tocopherol is recognized as inhibitor of lipid oxidation in biological systems and the intake of this vitamin is relevant to human health .Catering food products investigated in the current study have been chosen from two food groups: fish based food products and meat based food products.A number of ten food samples were investigated. Alpha tocopherol was analysed using a Shimadzu VP Series liquid chromatograph equipped with a fluorescence detector FR -10 AXL with excitation wavelength of 290 nm and emission wavelength of 325 nm. 
 Data analysis suggest significant loss of tocopherol in meat and fish based food product as compared to the content found in thermal non-treated preparations. Thus, in fish preparation the cook-serve processing by conventional thermal treatment diminishes the tocopherol content by 58%; in case of microwave thermal treatment this loss is 64.5 %. It was found that the microwave thermal treatment generated lower tocopherol content by 10% versus the conventional thermal treatment. In case of thermally non-treated meat preparations the tocopherol content is 0.82 mg/100g product, greater than in fish preparations, but the loss registered by conventional thermal treatment and by microwave thermal treatment is approximately 21,95%, and 25,6%, respectively. In the case of meat preparations, the microwave thermal treatment generates a loss of tocopherol content greater by 16,6 % as compared to the conventional thermal treatment.