Original scientific paper

Sunflower oil with vitamin D: Preliminary investigation of enrichment possibility

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Abstract

Fat soluble vitamins, including vitamin D, are not sufficiently represented in the human diet. Although vitamin D can be synthesized in the body by direct exposure of the body to the sun, often people don’t get enough sun exposure to assure enough vitamin D. Previous research has established that vitamin D deficiency is considered to be a highly prevalent nutritional problem worldwide. Vitamin D plays an important role in the optimal health including mediating calcium and phosphorus absorption, bone health metabolism, reducing cancer risk, prevention of cardiovascular diseases and insulin resistance. Optimal intake of vitamin D is an important issue for all races, ages and genders. Fatty fish and oil from the liver of various fish, as natural sources of vitamin D, are rarely present in the human diet worldwide, wherefore food fortification is a potential way to improve intake of vitamin D in the population. In order to select an appropriate food as a carrier for vitamin D fortification, several factors such as availability, cost, and stability during the cooking process should be considered. In addition, it should be noted that the amount of added vitamin D should be high enough to provide an adequate amount, and on the other hand, to prevent the risk of excessive intake of vitamin D. Vitamin D is, as previously mentioned, fat soluble, while vegetable oils and fats are present in the daily diet, so the aim of this work was to enrich sunflower oil with vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol). Cold-pressed oils are mainly used as salad oils, without additional heat treatment, which is why cold-pressed sunflower oil was used for fortification. On the other hand, high oleic acid content provides good oxidative characteristics, so high-oleic sunflower oil was chosen. Fortification achieved a vitamin D3 content of 210 μg/100 mL in this oil. A portion of 15 mL of sunflower oil contains 31,48 μg of vitamin D3, while a portion of 5 mL contains 10,5 μg of vitamin D3.

Keywords: cold-pressed oils, sunflower oil, food fortification, vitamin D