Objectives: To analyze the effect of processing on the vitamin A levels of milk that is donated to the Human Milk Bank at the University Maternity Hospital, and to evaluate whether this milk supplies the infants vitamin A requirement.Methods: Sixty milk samples from the Human Milk Bank were divided into two equal portions. One milk portion was extracted prior to processing, while another fraction was subjected to pasteurization and later extracted. The samples were analyzed using high performance liquid chromatography. Analysis with Students t test indicated that the difference between mean retinol levels was statistically significant at the p < 0.05 level.
Results:The retinol content found in the milk prior to processing was 55.4±34.0 µg/100 ml, whereas for the processed milk this level was 36.6±26.1 µg/100 ml (p < 0.001).Conclusion: It was found that retinol loss occurs during milk processing and that the milk from the Human Milk Bank does not meet infants vitamin A requirement.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.