The Technology of Vitamins in Food

Book excerpt: The last few years have seen a growing consumer awareness of nutrition and healthy eating in general. As a consequence, the food industry has become more concerned with the nutritional value of products and the maintenance of guaranteed micronutrient levels. While the food industry has the responsibility of producing foods that provide a realistic supply of nutrients, including vitamins, it is now also required to offer produce with a high degree of convenience and a long shelf life. Vitamins are relatively unstable, being affected by factors such as heat, light and other food components, but also by the processes needed to preserve the goods or to convert them into consumer products (such as pasteurization, sterilization, extrusion and irradiation). The result of these interactions may be a partial or total degradation of the vitamins. Food technology is concerned with both the maintenance of vitamin levels in foods and the restoration of the vitamin content to foods where losses have occurred. In addition, foods designed for special nutritional purposes, such as infant food and slimming goods, need to be enriched or fortified with vitamins and other micronutrients. This book reviews vitamins as ingredients of industrially manufactured food products. The technology of their production and use is covered from the food technologist's and engineer's points of view. Detailed coverage is also provided of other technical aspects such as analysis, stability and the use of vitamins as food technological aids.