title: Cholesterol oxidation in meat-based baby foods.
abstract: Cholesterol oxidation in commercial meat-based homogenized and freeze-dried baby foods was examined. The 7 major products of this reaction were determined by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS). As far as single cholesterol oxidation products (COP) are concerned, 7-ketocholesterol was the major product of direct cholesterol oxidation in the 2 groups of analyzed samples, and this study confirmed that it is a useful marker of the whole cholesterol oxidation process. Nevertheless, the amounts of cholesterol-5beta,6beta-epoxide were often similar to and sometimes higher than the amounts of 7-ketocholesterol, thus showing a strong development of both direct and indirect cholesterol oxidation pathways. Total COP content was significantly higher in freeze-dried than in homogenized products. Moreover, in freeze-dried samples, the COP content per serving was quite variable and, in 2 samples, it was close to or even higher than 500 microg. The greater development of cholesterol oxidation in the freeze-dried samples was confirmed by their highest total COP/cholesterol percent ratios. A constant correlation between the fatty acid composition and the development of cholesterol oxidation was not found, although a positive correlation between unsaturated fatty acid content and total COP content occasionally exists in samples of the same brand.
authors.affiliation: University of Genova, Dipartimento di Chimica e Tecnologie Farmaceutiche e Alimentari, Via Brigata Salerno (ponte), 16147 Genova, Italy. evangelisti@dictfa.unige.it
authors.forename: Filippo
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Evangelisti
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zunin
authors.forename: Raffaella
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Boggia
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Calcagno
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002784:Cholesterol / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007225:Infant Food / Q000032:analysis*; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008461:Meat Products / Q000032:analysis*; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction
chemical_list: D002784:Cholesterol