Water-soluble vitamin analysis in infant formula

Infant formula should contribute to an excellent and healthy development of newborns, which could not benefit from breastfeeding. In infant formulas vitamins play a pivotal role to ensure the baby’s supply with essential growth substances. At the same time, manufacturers face the challenge to measure the vitamin concentration to release safe products to these young customers.

Analyzing vitamins goes along with several obstacles: the sensitivity of vitamins for oxygen, pH, light and very often their very low occurrence even in traces. Especially for water-soluble vitamins like folic acid (B9), biotin (B7) and cobalamin (B12) whose concentrations are in the µg-level. In addition, the vitamin content of a sample often assembles from natural ingredients and added artificial premixes causing the demand for reliable preparation procedures to detect all vitamin molecules.

In view of these hurdles, it is good to have the right tools at hand. Since decades, vitamins are measured by microbiological assays, which are reliable and achieved recognition by public authorities. However, preparing special media and microbial strains is a cumbersome, time-consuming approach for analytical labs. Furthermore, alternative HPLC-based methods need a lot of investment in equipment and skills of the analyst, which limits their use for smaller labs or for time-limited projects.

VitaFast® – a timesaving micro-assay

VitaFast® tests combine the strengths of traditional microbiological assays and a unique ready-to-use format which provides an easy-to-use test with a low investment in the assay system. VitaFast® kits include a 96-well plate (each well contains prepared microbes) and all components to start right away with the vitamin analysis. Various parameters can be analyzed using the same equipment, making analysis very flexible. VitaFast® provides preparation procedures for infant formula and received AOAC-RI certificates for the parameters: B2, B5, B7, B9, B12.

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