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

ABSTRACT
Experiments were conducted by the Food Development Center (FDC) to fortify the peanut butter
of an industry collaborator after procedures developed by the University of the Philippines (UP) showed
low percentage recoveries of vitamin A and difficulty in tracing the cause of poor recovery. The
technology developed was a two-step fortification process consisting of the preparation of a peanut butter
premix containing high levels of vitamin A followed by the dilution of the premix with plain peanut
butter at a weight ratio adequate to achieve the required level of fortification in the final fortified product.
The fortified peanut butter prepared in this study achieved an actual vitamin A content of 8.50 and 8.59
micrograms retinol per gram peanut butter (µg RE/g peanut butter) for an average vitamin A recovery of
84.1% and 85.0%, respectively. This resulted in a fortified peanut butter with a level of vitamin A that is
65% of the Philippine Recommended Dietary Allowance (RENI). Philippine Guidelines on
Micronutrient Fortification of Processed Foods specify that the level of vitamin A in fortified foods
should supply at least one third (35%) to 150% of the RENI (DOH, 1995).
The study was conducted in three phases as follows: (1) Development of a dye test procedure to
visually monitor the extent of dispersion of the fortificant in the premix. The resulting dye test procedure
was used to determine the dispersion of the premix in the final fortified product, (2) Laboratory trials at
FDC for the establishment of the level of fortificant in the premix and in the final fortified product, and
(3) Trials at the industry collaborator’s plant for the pilot-scale production of premix and fortified peanut
butter.
Results of the dye test showed that when 2.72 g of dyed oil was added to 3 Kg of plain peanut
butter or a ratio of ~1:100, the dyed oil was completely dispersed in plain peanut butter after a total
mixing time of 10 min in a Hobart vertical mixer Model HCM 300 (Hobart Corporation, Troy, Ohio,
U.S.A.). The same observation was noted when 60 g of dyed peanut butter was added to 3 Kg of plain
peanut butter or a ratio of 1:50 to simulate dispersion of the premix into the final fortified product.
Laboratory trials conducted at FDC showed that there was good recovery and uniform dispersion
of the vitamin A in the premix using a 10 min mixing time in a Hobart vertical mixer Model HCM 300
(Hobart Corporation, Troy, Ohio, U.S.A.). Trials on vitamin A recovery in the premix ranged from 88.3
– 93.1% or an average recovery of 90.3% while variability of replicate samples was 2.78%. For premix
addition to plain peanut butter, vitamin A recovery in the final fortified product ranged from 83.8 - 85.5%
or an average recovery of 84.4%. Percentage variability in replicate samples of fortified peanut butter
was likewise low at