Food Diagnostics - Vitamins

Food and Feed Testing for Vitamins

Many foods are fortified with vitamins by spraying or mixing premixes into the food products. The foundation of analysis is to check it the declared vitamin content adheres to the local standards and if the marketing claims are justified. Vitamins are known to degrade with time due to oxidation and in fact the labelling contents must be equal or exceed that which is stated. In Singapore, the Food Regulations states that no label shall contain any nutrition claim unless it also includes a nutrition panel in the form specified in the twelfth schedule, which declare the amount of the nutrients stated. In fact, many foods in Singapore must have a prerequisite amount of nutrients e.g. margarine shall contain in 1 kg, vitamin A of an amount of not less than 8.5mg of retinol activity. Therefore, fast and reliable analytical tests is important.

There are a total of 13 vitamins of which vitamin A, D, E and K are fat soluble and the others, vitamin B and C are water soluble. Bioscience Diagnostics Singapore provides 2 tests for easy analysis of vitamins.