Dairy Chemistry and Physics
11 Vitamins
Vitamins are organic substances essential for many life processes. Milk includes fat soluble vitamins A , D, E, and K. Vitamin A is derived from retinol and ß -carotene. Because milk is an important source of dietary vitamin A, fat reduced products which have lost vitamin A with the fat, are required to supplement the product with vitamin A.
Milk is also an important source of dietary water soluble vitamins:
- B1 – thiamine
- B2 – riboflavin
- B6 – pyridoxine
- B12 – cyanocobalamin
- niacin
- pantothenic acid
There is also a small amount of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) present in raw milk but it is an insignificant amount relative to human needs and is quite heat-labile: about 20% is destroyed by pasteurization.
The vitamin content of fresh milk is given below:
| Vitamin | Contents per litre |
|---|---|
| A (ug RE) | 400 |
| D (IU) | 40 |
| E (ug) | 1000 |
| K (ug) | 50 |
| B1 (ug) | 450 |
| B2 (ug) | 1750 |
| Niacin (ug) | 900 |
| B6 (ug) | 500 |
| Pantothenic acid (ug) | 3500 |
| Biotin (ug) | 35 |
| Folic acid (ug) | 55 |
| B12 (ug) | 4.5 |
| C (mg) | 20 |
