Baking and storage stability of vitamin a in retailed bread consumed in Lagos State, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Level of vitamin A retention in bread baked with fortified flour at point of consumption might be compromised. Objective: This study determined baking and storage stability (BSS) of vitamin A in retailed bread as purchased and consumed.

Methods: A multi-stage stratified systematic random sampling technique was used to select preschoolers in 1,600 households in 5 out of 20 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Lagos. Fifteen samples of four 100% wheat flour brands (FBs) and 15 oven-fresh bread samples of three commonly consumed brands of bread were randomly selected from 12 purposively selected bakeries across the LGAs. The bread samples were stored for 5 days at room temperature. The retinol content of the flours and the oven-fresh, and 5-day (OF5D) stored bread samples were analysed using High Performance Liquid Chromatography. The BSS of the bread samples, FBs and losses were calculated and data analysed using descriptive statistics and T- test at p < 0.05.

Results: The mean vitamin A contents of the flours, oven-fresh and OF5D stored bread were 17,403.8 IU/Kg; 7,571.6 IU/Kg and 1,460.6 IU/Kg, respectively. The mean BSS of bread samples were 25.2 vs. 4.9 % and 52.7 vs. 10.9 % with high range of vitamin A losses (39.2-100 %). Statistically significant (p < 0.05) difference existed between vitamin A content of OF5D stored bread and the BSS of the flours. Also, differences existed between the baking and storage vitamin A losses in bread samples.

Conclusion: Vitamin A content and the BSS of the bread samples were low with high losses. Monitoring of compliance to recommended vitamin A value in fortified flour is important.

Keywords: Vitamin A fortified flour, bread, baking and storage stability, Nigeria