Vitamin in food: essential and requisite

Vitamin in food：Essential and Requisite !

1. Introduction to B complex group

Within the B complex group, eight vitamins are recognized: vitamins B1 (thiamin), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacin or niacinamide), B5 (pantothenic acid), B6 (pyridoxine, pyridoxal, or pyridoxamine), B7 (biotin), B9 (folic acid), and B12 (various cobalamins), all of them are hardly synthesized in body, thus humans must depend entirely on dietary intake. If vitamin intake from outside food is insufficient, the body will not be able to grow normally, and even specific diseases will occur, namely vitamin deficiency.
However, vitamins are easily lost during processing and storage due to their extremely low content in natural foods and their sensitivity to heat and oxygen. Therefore, in the field of food, synthetic vitamins B are usually added to food as additives to compensate for the growth and health of humans and animals.
Vitamins are micronutrients that are added to foods, which must be strictly controlled through testing. In order to evaluate the accuracy of labeling ingredients on food labels, the FDA of the USA requires that the actual amount of vitamins added in food must be 100% or more, while the amount of vitamins in raw vitamin products must be 80% or more.

2. Structural properties and content requirements of several major vitamins

2.1 Vitamin B7
Vitamin B7, or biotin, is an essential micronutrient required for the metabolism of carbohydrates and decarboxylation of amino acids, as this molecule is a cofactor in several carboxylases enzymes, such as acetyl-CoA carboxylase and pyruvate carboxylase. The molecule contains three asymmetric carbon atoms, and hence eight stereoisomers are possible. Of these, only dextrorotatory (+) d-biotin occurs in nature and possesses vitamin activity. Daily requirements range from 5 μg (for infant) to 35 μg (for breastfeeding women). Codex has established a lower limit of 1.5 μg/100 kcal and a GUL of 70 μg/100 kcal in infant formula and foods for special medical purposes.
Biotin is present in all natural foodstuffs, but its content in even the richest sources is very low when compared with the content of most other WSVs. Liver, eggs, soy beans, and peanuts are particularly rich sources of biotin. Other sources like yeast, wheat bran, oatmeal, muscle meats, fish, dairy products, and cereals contain smaller amounts.

2.2 Vitamin B9
Vitamin B9, or folate, is a generic term for compounds sharing a common chemical backbone and the same vitamin activity. They are naturally present in some foods as tetrahydrofolate, 5-methyltetrahydrofolate, 10-formyltetrahydrofolate, and 5, 10-methenyltetrahydrofolate among others. They are synthetized by microorganisms and plants and can be found in noticeable amounts in dark-green leafy vegetables, dry peas and beans, and citrus fruits. Folates act as a coenzyme in several single-carbon transfer reactions, and thus play a key role in the synthesis of purines and thymidine, as well as methionine. Daily requirements range from 65 μg (for infant) to 600 μg (for pregnant women). Codex has established a lower limit of 10 μg/100 kcal and a GUL of 50 μg/100 kcal in infant formula and foods for special medical purposes.

2.3 Vitamin B12
Vitamin B12, or cyanocobalamin, is present in all foods of animal origin. This vitamin is naturally found in living tissues in the form of two coenzymes, adenosylcobalamin and methylcobalamin, covalently bound to their protein apoenzymes. In milk, these coenzymes are noncovalently bound to specific transport proteins along with hydroxycobalamin. In addition, humans must depend entirely on dietary intake. Vitamin B12 plays a role in the one-carbon transfer pathway and deficiency primarily results in to two clinical complexes: megaloblastic anemia and neurologic disorders. Daily estimated average requirements range from 2 μg (in normal adults) to 0.4 μg (for infants). Codex has established a lower limit of 0.1 μg/100 kcal and a GUL of 1.5 μg/100 kcal in infant formula and foods for special medical purposes.

3. International standards

Analyte	Method name	Type of standard	Analytical technique	Extraction
Vitamin B7 (biotine)	EN 15607:2009	European standard. Codex type II for IF	LC with fluorimetric detection	Overnight enzymatic hydrolysis
	GB 5413.19-2010	Chinese standard	Microbiological	Heat in acidic conditions
Vitamin B9 (folates)	AOAC Method 992.05	AOAC Official MethodSM. Codex type II for IF	Microbiological	Chick pancreas preparation
	EN 14131:2003	European standard. Codex type II for IF	Microbiological	Heat optionally followed by trienzyme procedure
	GB 5413.16-2010	Chinese standard	Microbiological	Chick pancreas preparation
	AOAC Method 2011.05	AOAC Official MethodSM	Optical Biosensor immunoassay	Heat and then purified chicken pancreas deconjugase
	AOAC Method 2011.06	AOAC Official MethodSM	UHPLC with MS/MS detection	Trienzyme procedure
	AOAC Method 2013.13	AOAC Official MethodSM	UHPLC with MS/MS detection	Amylase, protease
Vitamin B12	AOAC Method 986.23	AOAC Official MethodSM. Codex type II for IF	Microbiological	Heat in acidic conditions
	GB 5413.14-2010	Chinese standard	Microbiological	Heat in acidic conditions
	AOAC Method 2011.08	AOAC Official MethodSM	LC with UV detection	Heat in acidic conditions followed by immunoaffinity cleanup
	AOAC Method 2011.09	AOAC Official MethodSM	LC with UV detection	Heat in acidic conditions followed by immunoaffinity cleanup
	AOAC Method 2011.10	AOAC Official MethodSM	LC-UV with column switching process	Heat in acidic conditions
	AOAC Method 2014.02	AOAC Official MethodSM	UHPLC-UV with UV detection	Heat in acidic conditions

      

4. Introduction of our products

E6001 - bovine Lactoferrin (bLF) ELISA Test
R6001 - Biotin (Vitamin B7) Rapid Test Kit
R6002 - Folid acid, vitamin B9 Rapid Test Kit
R6003 - Vitamin B12 Rapid Test Kit