Abstract
Inadequate intake of vitamin D is a global health issue related to severe diseases, mainly involving subjects with dark skin pigmentation, patients affected by malnutrition, malabsorption syndromes, or obesity, and elderly people. Some foods fortified with vitamin D have been tested in vivo, but fortification strategies with a global outreach are still lacking. This review is focused on food fortification with vitamin D, with the aim to collect information on (a) formulation strategies; (b) stability during processing and storage; and (c) in vitro bioaccessibility. Approaches to add vitamin D to various foods were analyzed, including the use of free vitamin D, vitamin D loaded in simple and double nanoemulsions, liposomes, casein micelles, and protein nanocapsules. Numerous studies were reviewed to elucidate the impact of food technologies on vitamin D’s stability, and mechanisms that lead to degradation were identified—namely, acid-catalyzed isomerization, radical-induced oxidation, and photo-oxidation. There is, however, a lack of kinetic data that allow for the prediction of vitamin D’s stability under industrial processing conditions. The roles that lipids, proteins, fibers, and antioxidants play in vitamin bioaccessibility have been clarified in various studies, while future needs include the design of specific food matrices that simultaneously achieve a balance between the long-term stability, bioaccessibility and, ultimately, in vivo functionality of vitamin D.
Highlights
Vitamin D performs essential functions for human health, and concerns about its inadequate dietary intake have been expressed worldwide [1,2]
Water-dispersible vitamin D2 was found to be stable in milk upon pasteurization at 63 ◦C for 30 min and storage at 4 ◦C for 7 d in glass bottles in the dark, or for 32 h under light (1485–4455 lux), while vitamin D2 retention was ~90% when polyethylene pouches were used as a packaging material, regardless of light exposure during storage
Vitamin D is dissolved within the hydrophobic domains of the food matrices—such as bulk oils, fat droplets, or liposomes—or it is associated with proteins [79,80]
Summary
Vitamin D performs essential functions for human health, and concerns about its inadequate dietary intake have been expressed worldwide [1,2]. Positive effects on serum 25(OH)D level and in the maintenance of cognitive performance were observed upon consumption of yogurt enriched with Ca++ and 10 μg/d of a non-specified form of vitamin D3 by a population of healthy elderly women (≥65 years), while vitamin D enrichment of yogurt with regular Ca++ content was not considered [24] In another approach, the water-dispersible form of vitamin D3 was used to fortify yogurt, and proved to be effective in increasing serum 25(OH)D levels and improving the serum lipid profiles of pre-diabetic subjects aged 37–47 years [25], when administered at a dose of 25 μg/d. The ultimate aim of this study is to support the design of an efficient technology for the vitamin D fortification of foods
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