Household Processing Practices of Milk and Cottage Cheese: Implications for Vitamin A Retention

Abstract

<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Milk and milk products are excellent sources of several important nutrients including retinol in the diets of young children. Household processing practices followed by the mothers (n=400) of young children (1-9 yrs) of Delhi was assessed using an interview schedule. The effect of boiling on the retinol content in milk and frying on cottage cheese was assessed using HPLC. All households were boiling milk before consumption. Increasing the time period of boiling from 2 to 10 minutes did not lead to any significant losses (5 to 9 %) of retinol in milk. About 10.32 % of reduction in retinol content was observed in the milk which was boiled, cooled in refrigerator and cream was removed before consumption. However, children preferred removing the creamy layer formed on boiled, cooled milk before consumption which led to significant loss of 28.43% retinol especially if milk was stored overnight in refrigerator (p<0.05). In cottage cheese, sautéing led to insignificant loss of 5.80 % in the retinol content while deep frying led to 15.78 % of significant reduction in retinol (p<.05). Consuming milk immediately with cream after boiling or homogenising milk with cream after storage will retain most of the vitamin A. Sautéing is preferred over deep fat frying cottage cheese for different preparations for better retention. </span></span></p>

Associations between livestock keeping, morbidity and nutritional status of children and women in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review

“…The effect of season on the possible benefits of livestock keeping on nutritional outcome was also reported. A study from a drought prone area in Ethiopia showed that improvement in the state of nutrition of pastoral children followed soon after the main rains, but occurred later and after the main harvest among the children in agricultural households (55) .The association between livestock ownership and micronutrient status was explored only in a few studies (75)(76)(77)(84)(85)(86) (e.g. zinc (85) and retinol (86) ).…”

“…A study from a drought prone area in Ethiopia showed that improvement in the state of nutrition of pastoral children followed soon after the main rains, but occurred later and after the main harvest among the children in agricultural households (55) .The association between livestock ownership and micronutrient status was explored only in a few studies (75)(76)(77)(84)(85)(86) (e.g. zinc (85) and retinol (86) ). Almost all of these references showed positive associations or a beneficial role of livestock keeping on children's micronutrient status.…”

“…Livestock production had a mixed effect on women's macronutrient and micronutrient status. As such, some of the studies reviewed showed that livestock ownership had either a beneficial (31,(74)(75)(76)(77)(78)(79)(80)(81) or neutral (86,87) effect on women's macroand micronutrient (nutritional) status. For example, studies that investigated the association between livestock (poultry) farming and maternal body mass index (BMI) showed that not owning chickens was associated with maternal underweight (79) , and inversely related to maternal BMI (78,81) .…”

“…In the studies which assessed the association between livestock keeping and children's micronutrient status, zinc deficiency (n = 1) (85) and retinol status (n = 1) (86) , showed beneficial (protective) associations in alleviating the nutrient deficiencies. However, among the four (75)(76)(77)84) studies reporting on child anaemia (classified based on WHO's guideline (87) as haemoglobin concentration of 100-109 g/L, 70-99 g/L and <70 g/L for mild, moderate and severe anaemia, respectively) one study showed an adverse (77) association, while the remaining three reported beneficial (positive) (75,76,84) associations between livestock keeping and anaemia status of children.…”

“…Regarding women's nutritional status, the majority of studies reported either a beneficial (31,(74)(75)(76)(77)(78)(79)(80)(81) or neutral (86,87) association between livestock keeping and nutritional status (e.g. reduced nutrient deficiencies, reduced malnutrition).…”