Influence of chemical forms and homogenization process on the stability of vitamin A in infant follow-on formulas

Abstract

Vitamin A is an essential micronutrient for infant development, and its stability is crucial to ensure adequate intake. This study aimed to investigate the vitamin A stability in infant follow-on formulas (IFF) depending on its chemical forms and on the homogenization process. For this propose, model IFF representatives of commercialized formulas were formulated with varying vitamin A forms (retinol, retinyl esters or carotenoids) and homogenization process applied. Losses of vitamin A were assessed either before or after the homogenization process, or after a storage of 20 days at 40°C. The homogenization process led to a vitamin A loss up to 14.3% at high pressure (350/40 bars, 8 passes) explained by important shearing forces leading to local heating of molecules. The presence of carotenoids and especially β-carotene led to a stabilization effect with a loss of only 40.7% of vitamin A during storage compared to 84.9% without carotenoids. Carotenoids provides a better resistance to lipid oxidation due to their synergetic effect with vitamin E. This study highlights that a good knowledge of vitamin A reactivity during processing and selection of chemical form with potential synergy with other compounds can improve its stability in IFF.