Effect of Supplementary Iron on Vitamin A Stability in Food

Iron was fortified with vitamin A alcohol and suspended on microcrystalline cellulose (MCC). The mixture was stored in a desiccator at very low controlled relative humidity (aw 0.11) with 30, 40 and 50°C. The loss of vitamin A alcohol was determined by normal phase HLPC. It was observed that storage time and temperature had great effect on vitamin A alcohol degradation. The rate of loss was found to be first order kinetics in iron fortified model dehydrated system. Approximately 50% of the vitamin A alcohol was destroyed in 55, 44 and 29 hours in iron fortified system stored at 30, 40 and 50°C respectively. Arrhenius activation energy (Ea) was found to be lower (24.8x103 Jmol-1) in iron fortified food system as compared to non-fortified food system(28.3x103 Jmol-¹).