Evaluation of vitamin A and carotenoid data in food composition tables
Beecher, G.R.; Khachik, F.
Journal of the National Cancer Institute 73(6): 1397-1404
1984
ISSN/ISBN: 0027-8874 PMID: 6392673 Document Number: 225346
Vitamin A and carotenoid contents in food composition tables have been generated with the use of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists procedures. Those procedures fractionate complex mixtures of retinoids and carotenoids into only 3 fractions: retinoids, carotenes and xanthophylls. Food tables lack uniformity in the presentation of vitamin A and carotenoid contents. For example, the revisions of Agriculture Handbook, No. 8 (Washington, DC: US Govt Print Off, 1963), report international units and retinol equivalents of vitamin A in foods. Food tables published in the UK (Paul A.A. and Southgate D.A., McCance and Widdowson's: The composition of foods. Amsterdam: Elsevier/North-Holland, 1978) report preformed vitamin A as retinol and carotenoids as carotene on a weight basis ( mu g/100 g food). The vitamin A and carotenoid contents currently available in food composition tables allow only the intake of total vitamin A activity to be estimated. Information about the intake of specific species of retinoids or carotenoids is not available and could not be calculated from existing food tables. Limited applications of new separation techniques and chemical instrumentation have shown the potential for generating detailed analytical information on the retinoid and carotenoid contents of foods.