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β‐Carotene retention during African home‐based processing of biofortified maize
Author(s) -
Li Shanshan,
Tayie Francis A.K.,
Rocheford Torbert,
White Wendy S.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.21.5.a351-a
Subject(s) - food science , carotenoid , fermentation , carotene , beta carotene , biofortification , vitamin , vitamin a deficiency , raw material , biology , chemistry , retinol , micronutrient , biochemistry , organic chemistry , ecology
More than any other continent, Africa depends on maize as a food source. The HarvestPlus program is developing maize biofortified with beta‐carotene as a cost‐effective, sustainable agronomic approach to alleviating the problem of vitamin A deficiency in Africa. We used biofortified maize (10.5 ± 0.2 μg β‐carotene/g) to prepare traditional maize porridges and compared the carotenoid contents in the following: whole kernels; wet milled flour; wet milled flour – fermented; wet milled flour – cooked; wet milled flour – fermented and cooked. β‐Carotene losses were expressed as a percentage of the initial βcarotene content in the raw whole kernels. The cumulative loss of βcarotene in the final fermented, cooked product was 24.5% (95% CI 22.8–26.2%); a 7.3% (95% CI 5.6–9.0%) loss occurred during the preparation of wet milled flour; a 10.2% (95% CI 8.5–11.9%) loss during fermentation, and a 6.9% (95% CI 5.2–8.6%) loss during cooking. When the fermentation step was omitted, the loss during the cooking step increased to 17.5% (95% CI 15.8–19.2%). Thus the β‐carotene contents in the final products, fermented and unfermented porridges, were not significantly different. This study provides initial information regarding cooking retention of provitamin A carotenoids as a basis for predicting the bioefficacy of biofortified maize in combating vitamin A deficiency. Supported by USAID/CIAT.