title: Quantification of vitamin a in palm oil using a fast and simple portable device: method validation and comparison to high-performance liquid chromatography.
abstract: Vitamin A deficiency continues to be a global public health problem. Fortification of oil with vitamin A is considered a cost-effective, feasible strategy to prevent this problem but quality control poses a challenge to program implementation. To overcome this, we have validated a newly developed device that quantitatively measures the content of retinyl palmitate in refined palm oil, is simple to use, and yields immediate results.Linearity of analysis ranged from 2.5 - 30 mg retinol equivalents (RE)/ kg of palm oil, with 2.5 mg RE/kg being the determination limit; inter- and intra-assay precision ranged from 1.4 - 7.1 %. Comparison with a high-performance liquid chromatography method showed high agreement between the methods (R(2) = 0.92; Limits of Agreement: -1.24 mg to 2.53 mg RE/kg), and further comparisons illustrate that the new device is useful in low-resource settings. This device offers a field- and user-friendly solution to quantifying the vitamin A content in refined palm oil.
authors.affiliation: GAIN - Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, Geneva, Switzerland. frohner@gainhealth.org
authors.forename: Fabian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rohner
authors.forename: Simone K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Frey
authors.forename: Ralf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mothes
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hurtienne
authors.forename: Simone
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hartong
authors.forename: Patrice Emery
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Bosso
authors.forename: Mai
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bui
authors.forename: Florian J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Schweigert
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Northrop-Clewes
mesh_terms: D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D005527:Food, Fortified; D007202:Indicators and Reagents; D000073878:Palm Oil; D010938:Plant Oils / Q000737:chemistry*; D012984:Software; D013053:Spectrophotometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D014801:Vitamin A / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D007202:Indicators and Reagents; D010938:Plant Oils; D014801:Vitamin A; D000073878:Palm Oil