Vitamin D2 stability in milk during processing, packaging and storage

Stability of vitamin D-2 in milk was determined in vitamin D-2 fortified milk. Reverse phase high pressure liquid chromatography was used to determine the vitamin D-2 loss during processing, packaging and under light. The percentage losses during pasteurization, boiling and sterilization were demonstrated to be statistically insignificant. Milk was stored for seven days in both glass and plastic bottles under refrigerated temperature, non significant loss of vitamin D-2 was observed, whereas, when stored in polyethylene pouches significant loss was observed as vitamin D-2 decreased from 596.66 to 548.04 IU. This clearly indicated that vitamin D-2 was sorbed up by polyethylene material during storage resulting in its loss. Milk samples were stored for 32 h under three different light intensities (14,852,970 and 4455 lux). Non significant loss of vitamin D-2 was observed in glass packaging, whereas significant loss was observed in polyethylene pouches. In milk fortified with both calcium and vitamin D-2, non significant effect of calcium was observed on the loss of vitamin D-2. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.