ABSTRACT
In the Netherlands, vitamin intake occurs mainly via food and for some vitamins also via fortified food. In addition, some people take dietary supplements. Information on the bioavailability of vitamins is important for a good estimation of the actual exposure to vitamins. Furthermore, for a reliable intake estimation, it is important to know the accurateness of the claimed vitamin concentration on the product label. In the current study, the amount of vitamin A, vitamin C, and folic acid in different products and their maximum bioavailability (bioaccessibility) were investigated. In about half of the products, the amount of vitamins significantly deviated from the declared amounts. The vitamin bioaccessibility ranged from <1% to 100%. When assessing the dietary intake exposure of vitamins, it is important to take into account both the possible deviation from the declared level and (the variability of) the bioaccessibility of the vitamin in the products.
Subject(s)
Ascorbic Acid/analysis , Dietary Supplements/analysis , Folic Acid/analysis , Food, Fortified/analysis , Infant Formula/chemistry , Vitamin A/analysis , Ascorbic Acid/chemistry , Ascorbic Acid/metabolism , Beverages/analysis , Beverages/economics , Child , Child, Preschool , Dietary Supplements/economics , Digestion , Edible Grain/chemistry , Fast Foods/analysis , Fast Foods/economics , Folic Acid/chemistry , Folic Acid/metabolism , Food Labeling/standards , Food, Fortified/economics , Fruit/chemistry , Fruit/economics , Guideline Adherence , Humans , Infant , Infant Formula/economics , Infant Formula/metabolism , Models, Biological , Netherlands , Nutritive Value , Solubility , Vitamin A/chemistry , Vitamin A/metabolismABSTRACT
Binding products or food 'glues' are used throughout the food industry to increase the meat use rate or to augment economic efficiency. Some of these binders contain thrombin from bovine and porcine blood. The European parliament has recently banned thrombin-based additives and labelling legislation governs their use in the US. A mass spectrometry screening method is available to detect the addition of thrombin agents to foods as there is a need to protect consumers and to avoid misleading trade practices. We report the details of an inter-laboratory trial to determine the transferability of this method to operators in various food testing laboratories, each using a different triple quadrupole mass spectrometer design. The trial was successful with the species origin of the binding agent contained in each of the 43 test materials being correctly reported by the participants. This is consistent with a false positive and false negative rate of 0%. This is the first collaborative study, as far as we are aware, which involves a liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) application to approach a food authenticity issue.
