Fatty acid profile in baby food products

Abstract

Dietary lipids are the major energy source for infants andyoung children. Lipid tissue accretion in growing infants isvery high and contributes 90% of all energy deposited inthe body during the first six months of life [1, 2]. The mostimportant functional components of dietary lipids (triglyc-erides, phospholipids and cholesterol esters), particularlylong-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFA) arefundamental to normal growth and the development of in-fants [3, 4]. The two families of LC-PUFAs, the n-3 andthe n-6 have specific functions: docosahexaenoic acid(DHA; C22:6n3) in retina and brain, whereas arachidonicacid (AA; C20:4n6) is the precursor of prostaglandins andleucotrienes and is also a major brain component. AAandDHA are deposited in large amounts in the nonmyelinmembranes of the developing central nervous system. In-adequate supplies of n-6 and n-3 fatty acids during ner-vous system development are of concern because of pos-sible long-term changes in learning ability and reduced vi-sual function [5]. Current evidence suggests that the new-born is able to synthesize AA and DHA from linoleic acid(LA, C18:2n6) and α-linolenic acid (ALA, C18:3n3), re-spectively [6]. However, the amount of LC-PUFA beingproduced, particularly of DHA, may not be sufficient tomeet the developmental requirement of the infant [7, 8].The newborn term infant has a limited desaturating ca-pacity and depends on an exogenous supply of LC-PUFAs during the first months of life [9]. A dietary lack ofessential fatty acids and their derivatives is evident also inweaned children during the second half of their first yearof life [10]. Human milk is the best source of fat and di-etary essential fatty acids for infant feeding; it provides acomplex mixture of fatty acids, including the essential 18-carbon polyunsaturated (LA, ALA) and many long-chain(20- and 22-carbon) polyunsaturated fatty acids (AA,DHA) [7, 11, 12], whereas commercially available infantformulas usually prepared with plant oils containing only18-carbon essential fatty acids [12]. DHA and AA arefound in many non-vegetable foods (fish, meat, eggs).For this reason an intake of baby food products, particu-larly prepared with meat, could be of great importance ascomplementary feeding to formula milk. Commerciallyavailable infant foods reported by