Physicochemical analysis of wheat flour fortified with vitamin A and three types of iron source and sensory analysis of bread using these flours.
BACKGROUND
Wheat flour is increasingly being fortified worldwide with vitamin A and iron. Research on high levels of fortification is limited; therefore, in this study, wheat flour was made under controlled conditions fortified with vitamin A at 30 000 or 70 000 retinol equivalents (RE) kg⁻¹ and three types of iron source at 66 mg kg⁻¹.


RESULTS
Milling produced a uniform distribution of fortificants with no significant separation during packaging or transportation. Chemical and physical analyses demonstrated that the dual fortified flours had acceptable physicochemical properties of mixing tolerance, pasting curves, damaged starch and falling numbers. The level of vitamin A fortification compensated for initial loss caused during wheat processing. Overall, white breads baked from seven treatments of fortified flour had only 22% (eight out of 36) of the sensory attributes as being significantly different. However, the type of iron source may play a key role in modulating the sensory attributes of bread baked from the dual fortified flour with vitamin A and iron.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings suggest that dual fortified flour with high or even lower levels of vitamin A and iron could be considered for food fortification programmes to reduce the prevalence of micronutrient undernutrition of vitamin A and iron in developing countries.
Department of Food Science, University of Arkansas, 2650 North Young Avenue, Fayetteville, AR 72704, USA. crandal@uark.edu
Philip G
PG
Crandall
Han-Seok
HS
Seo
Corliss A
CA
O'Bryan
Jean F
JF
Meullenet
Navam S
NS
Hettiarachchy
Anna M
AM
Washburn
Gur S
GS
Ranhotra
D001939:Bread / Q000032:analysis*; D055598:Chemical Phenomena; D003296:Cooking; D004224:Diterpenes; D005296:Ferrous Compounds / Q000737:chemistry; D005433:Flour / Q000032:analysis*; D061353:Food Storage; D005527:Food, Fortified / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D007501:Iron / Q000737:chemistry; D019266:Iron, Dietary / Q000032:analysis*; D007615:Kansas; D009812:Odorants; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D010316:Particle Size; D000084562:Retinyl Esters; D012677:Sensation; D013213:Starch / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry; D013649:Taste; D014186:Transportation; D014801:Vitamin A / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000737:chemistry*
D004224:Diterpenes; D005296:Ferrous Compounds; D019266:Iron, Dietary; D000084562:Retinyl Esters; D014801:Vitamin A; C014794:retinol palmitate; C020748:ferrous sulfate; D013213:Starch; D007501:Iron