Abstract
Vitamin D deficiency due to, e.g., nutritional and life style reasons is a health concern that is gaining increasing attention over the last two decades. Vitamin D3, the most common isoform of vitamin D, is only available in food derived from animal sources. However, mushrooms and yeast are rich in ergosterol. This compound can be converted into vitamin D2 by UV-light, and therefore act as a precursor for vitamin D. Vitamin D2 from UV-irradiated mushrooms has become an alternative source of vitamin D, especially for persons pursuing a vegan diet. UV-irradiated baker’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) for the production of fortified yeast-leavened bread and baked goods was approved as a Novel Food Ingredient in the European Union, according to Regulation (EC) No. 258/97. The Scientific Opinion provided by the European Food Safety Authority Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition, and Allergies has assessed this Novel Food Ingredient as safe under the intended nutritional use. However, recent findings on the formation of side products during UV-irradiation, e.g., the photoproducts tachysterol and lumisterol which are compounds with no adequate risk assessment performed, have only been marginally considered for this EFSA opinion. Furthermore, proceedings in analytics can provide additional insights, which might open up new perspectives, also regarding the bioavailability and potential health benefits of vitamin D-fortified mushrooms and yeast. Therefore, this review is intended to give an overview on the current status of UV irradiation in mushrooms and yeast in general and provide a detailed assessment on the potential health effects of UV-irradiated baker’s yeast.
Highlights
There is a long list of conservative assumptions regarding the assessment, which include the fact that all of the consumed bread and fine pastry goods would be prepared with UV-irradiated yeast and that the amount of vitamin D isomers and their respective photoproducts correspond to the ones seen by Wittig et al in their analytics, including a bioavailability that corresponds to the harsh reaction conditions utilized for sample preparation
This review, utilising a hypothetical assessment of the vitamin D2 and vitamin D4 content as well as their associated photoproducts after UV irradiation, concluded that there is a potential risk for a population cohort with a high intake of yeast-leavened baked goods
The scientific opinion of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) should have put a higher emphasis on the generation of the photoproducts and their occurrence in yeast, utilising the available data both from UV irradiation of yeast and mushrooms, especially when the significant challenges regarding vitamin D analytics from biological matrices were already known at the time
Summary
Given enough exposure to sunlight, the human body can synthesize the required amount by itself, and beyond. Doses by this endogenous synthesis can reach up to 10,000 international units (IU), while only 400 to. There are several vitamin D isoforms which all share the same core structure. The different isoforms show minor modifications in the side chain of vitamin D There are several vitamin D isoforms which all share the same core structure different isoforms show minor modifications in the side chain of vitamin D
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