Removal of fat from Cow's milk decreases the vitamin E contents of the resulting dairy products

The present study was undertaken to determine whether decreases in fat contents result in lower vitamin E contents. Milk samples of varying fat contents (half and half, whole milk, reduced‐fat milk low‐fat milk, and nonfat milk) were obtained from a local dairy on six different occasions, α‐locopherol was the major form of vitamin E (>85%); γ‐tocopherol and α‐tocotrienol were present to a lesser extent. As the fat contents of milk products decreased from 11 to 0.3%, the vitamin E contents decreased. For example, raw milk as compared to nonfat milk had both higher α‐tocopherol contents (45.5+‐4.6 vs. 4.5±0.5 μg/100 g; P <‐0.0001) and higher total lipids (3.46±0.49 vs. 0.30±0.07 g/100 g; P ≤0.0001). Vitamin E, cholesterol, and total lipids increased as cream was added back to nonfat milk during production. For every 1 mg cholesterol increase, there was an increase of approximately 4 μg of α‐tocopherol; for every 1 g total lipids increase, the α‐tocopherol content increased by 17 μg. These data demonstrate that removal of milk fat markedly decreases the vitamin E content of various milk products