GB573937A - Improvements in or relating to the production of stable fat-soluble vitamin-containing products - Google Patents

Abstract

Powdery, non-oily products for fortifying human and animal foods and containing a fat-soluble vitamin less susceptible to destruction by oxidation, are obtained by incorporating a crude vegetable oil and a fat-soluble vitamin containing fatty material, in amounts together less than 30 per cent., into a finely-divided vegetable material. The amount of oil is equal to or greater than the amount of vitamin-containing material incorporated. The total fat content of the product is preferably at least 5 per cent. The oil may be stirred into the vegetable material after impregnation of the latter with the vitamin-containing fatty material or the vegetable material may be impregnated with a solution in the oil of the vitamin-containing fatty material. The vegetable material and oil preferably contain natural antioxidants, or antioxidants may be added to the product. Crude oils of the following are suitable: maize, maize germ, soya bean, cottonseed, wheat germ, peanut, palm, coconut, sesame seed, rice bran. Natural or synthetic material rich in one or more of the fat-soluble vitamins, A, D, E and K, may be employed, e.g. cod liver, shark liver, halibut, sardine, tuna liver or palm oil, concentrates of such oils fortified, if desired, with vitamin concentrates, or fractions of such oils prepared by vacuum distillation or by the process of Specification 550,983. The vegetable materials capable of absorbing large amounts of fatty material are: wheat germ pressed cake flour, maize oil meal, dried distiller's maize or rye solubles and linseed oil meal. Mixtures of such vegetable material with vegetable material, such as soya bean meal, oat meal, wheat bran and maize germ meal, having less affinity for fatty material, may be employed. Absorption of fatty materials by the latter vegetable materials may be increased by treatment of the oily mixture with highly polar solvents substantially immiscible with fatty materials, e.g., methanol, ethanol or isopropanol containing at least 9 per cent. of water, and subsequent removal of the solvent. Natural antioxidants in the vegetable material may be made more readily available by preliminary treatment of the vegetable material with the solvent mentioned, followed by removal of the solvent, or by preliminarily forming the vegetable material into an aqueous slurry, removing the water therefrom and finely dividing the dried material. The vegetable materials employed ordinarily contain Vitamin B1 and riboflavin; these vitamins and other water-soluble vitamins, e.g. vitamin C, pantothenic acid, biotin and pyridoxine, may be incorporated into the product. The products may be made into tablets.