Quantification of vitamin a in palm oil using a fast and simple portable device: method validation and comparison to high-performance liquid chromatography

Int J Vitam Nutr Res. 2011 Sep;81(5):335-42. doi: 10.1024/0300-9831/a000081.

Abstract

Vitamin A deficiency continues to be a global public health problem. Fortification of oil with vitamin A is considered a cost-effective, feasible strategy to prevent this problem but quality control poses a challenge to program implementation. To overcome this, we have validated a newly developed device that quantitatively measures the content of retinyl palmitate in refined palm oil, is simple to use, and yields immediate results.Linearity of analysis ranged from 2.5 - 30 mg retinol equivalents (RE)/ kg of palm oil, with 2.5 mg RE/kg being the determination limit; inter- and intra-assay precision ranged from 1.4 - 7.1 %. Comparison with a high-performance liquid chromatography method showed high agreement between the methods (R(2) = 0.92; Limits of Agreement: -1.24 mg to 2.53 mg RE/kg), and further comparisons illustrate that the new device is useful in low-resource settings. This device offers a field- and user-friendly solution to quantifying the vitamin A content in refined palm oil.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Validation Study

MeSH terms

  • Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid*
  • Food, Fortified
  • Indicators and Reagents
  • Palm Oil
  • Plant Oils / chemistry*
  • Software
  • Spectrophotometry / instrumentation*
  • Vitamin A / analysis*

Substances

  • Indicators and Reagents
  • Plant Oils
  • Vitamin A
  • Palm Oil