VITAMIN A FORTIFIed PEANUT BUTTER - The Official Website of ...

prepared from the intermediate solution. For the determination of beta-carotene in stabilized peanut
butter the standards used had concentrations of 0.125, 0.25 and 0.5 μg/mL.
HPLC quantification of vitamin A
Twenty μL of eluate was injected to HPLC (Shimadzu 10AVP, Shimadzu Corp., Columbia, Md.,
USA). Separation was achieved through a reversed phase column (Purosphere RP 18e, 5 um, 15-4,
Merck, Darmstadt, Germany) equipped with a column oven at 28°C and a UV detector set to 326 nm.
The analysis was carried out with 92% methanol (HPLC grade, Merck, Darmstadt, Germany) as the
mobile phase at a flow rate of 1 mL/min. The concentration of retinol was calculated using the average
peak areas compared between standards and samples. Results were reported as μg RE/g.
UV spectrophotometric quantification of beta-carotene
The resulting eluate from peanut butter samples fortified with beta-carotene was monitored in a
UV Spectrophotometer (Model Lambda 20, Perkin Elmer, Norwalk, Connecticut, USA) at 436 nm.
Absorbance was compared with the standard carotene curve read at the same wavelength and the
concentration of beta-carotene was calculated. Results were reported as μg β-carotene/g. All betacarotene
analyses were run in duplicates. β-carotene was converted to vitamin A (retinol) using the
equation:
μg RE/g = μg/g β-carotene x 0.3 μg RE/0.6 μg/g β-carotene
The target vitamin A fortification levels were (1) just right (1/3 of the 525 μg RE Recommended
Daily Allowance or RENI for Filipino male adult, (de Guzman et al., 1996), (2) 10% above just right and
(3) 20% above just right. The amount of vitamin A retained equivalent to % of RENI and % vitamin A
retention were computed as follows:
% of RENI for vitamin A= amount of vitamin A after processing (μg RE) x 100
525 μg RE
% Recovery = amount of vitamin A after processing (μg RE/g) x 100
amount of vitamin A added (μg RE/g)
Vitamin A Fortification of Peanut Butter – Commercial Scale
The commercial production of the peanut butter in the collaboator’s facility was slightly different
from the pilot scale production done in FDC. The roaster was expectedly bigger, with maximum capacity
of 120 Kg and is made of concrete materials with no temperature control. The manufacture of peanut
butter starts from roasting the peanuts, then reducing the size of peanuts using a coarse grinder, followed
by two fine grinding steps, a homogenization step, final mixing for 5 min, and then filling into bottles or
jars.
The procedure for vitamin A fortication of peanut butter was then modified in commercial scale
using the facilities of the industry collaborator. Since the collabotor’s procedure involves many grinding
and mixing steps, the best point of addition of the fortificant was determined. Two points of addition of
the fortificant were determined and compared. These were: (a) in the mixture of peanuts and sugar before
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