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

ABSTRACT
In a survey on peanut butter consumptions in the Philippines by Galvez et al. (1999), a greater
part of the peanut butter consumers prefer the firm type (stabilized) peanut butter. With the product’s
popularity among consumers, a study was conducted to develop a procedure for vitamin A fortification of
stabilized peanut butter as a food vehicle to eliminate vitamin A deficiency in the Philippines. Vitamin A
fortified stabilized peanut butter was formulated using three types of fortificants at three levels of
fortification and two brands of stabilizers. Vitamin A palmitate (oily and microencapsulated forms) and
an oily preparation of beta-carotene (10%) were used as fortificants at varying concentrations (70, 140
and 210% of the Philippine RENI for male adult) to determine the most cost-effective fortificant to use
that will meet Philippine regulation on vitamin A fortification of foods. The performance of a local and
imported brand of stabilizers in terms of vitamin A retained in peanut butter after processing was also
compared.
Vitamin A palmitate in microencapsulated form has the advantage in terms of cost, bioavailability
and stability as compared to the other fortificants. A fortification level as low as 70% of the RENI for all
types of fortificant used provided at least 1/3 of the RENI (184.60 μg RE/day) and some samples fortified
at 210% of RENI exceeded the 100% of RENI (531.82 to 920.7 μg RE/day).
The performance of locally available and imported brand stabilizers in terms of amount of
vitamin A (as % of RENI) retained in the sample after processing was significantly different. However,
the % vitamin A retention for all stabilized peanut butter samples showed no significant differences,
hence; the use of a locally available stabilizer is recommended. To account for vitamin A losses that may
occur during storage of peanut butter, a fortification rate between 70 to 140% of the RENI with
microencapsulated vitamin A palmitate and stabilized with a locally available stabilizer can provide 175
μg RE/day of vitamin A with minimum cost.
The technology of fortifying stabilized peanut butter by direct addition was later adopted by two
industry collaborators. Details of transfer of technology and adoption are presented in Chapters 5a and 5b
of this monograph.
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