Microparticles could help prevent vitaminA deficiency MIT PNASNews
MIT researchers have now developed a new way to fortify foods with vitamin A, which they hope could help to improve the health of millions of people around the world. In a new study, they showed that encapsulating vitamin A in a protective polymer prevents the nutrient from being broken down during cooking or storage.
In a small clinical trial, the researchers showed that when people ate bread fortified with encapsulated vitamin A, the bioavailability of the nutrient was similar to when they consumed vitamin A on its own. The technology has been licensed to two companies that hope to develop it for use in"This is a study that our team is really excited about because it shows that everything we did inand animals works safely and effectively in humans," says Robert Langer, the David H.
BMC is classified by the FDA as"generally regarded as safe," and is already used in coatings for drugs and dietary supplements. In the new study, the researchers focused on using this polymer to encapsulate vitamin A, a nutrient that is very sensitive to temperature and ultraviolet light.known as a spinning disc process, the researchers mixed vitamin A with the polymer to form particles 100 to 200 microns in diameter.
The researchers also showed that the encapsulated particles could be easily incorporated into flour or bouillon cubes. To test how well they would survive long-term storage, the researchers exposed the cubes to, as recommended by the World Health Organization: 40 degrees Celsius and 75 percent humidity. Under those conditions, the encapsulated vitamin A was much more stable than other forms of vitamin A.
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