Household Processing Practices of Milk and Cottage Cheese: Implications for Vitamin A Retention

Abstract

Milk and milk products are excellent sources of several important nutrients including retinol in the diets of young children. Household processing practices followed by the mothers (n=400) of young children (1-9 yrs) of Delhi was assessed using an interview schedule. The effect of boiling on the retinol content in milk and frying on cottage cheese was assessed using HPLC.  All households were boiling milk before consumption. Increasing the time period of boiling from 2 to 10 minutes did not lead to any significant losses (5 to 9 %) of retinol in milk. About 10.32 % of reduction in retinol content was observed in the milk which was boiled, cooled in refrigerator and cream was removed before consumption. However, children preferred removing the creamy layer formed on boiled, cooled milk before consumption which led to significant loss of 28.43% retinol especially if milk was stored overnight in refrigerator (p<0.05). In cottage cheese, sautéing led to insignificant loss of 5.80 % in the retinol content while deep frying led to 15.78 % of significant reduction in retinol (p<.05). Consuming milk immediately with cream after boiling or homogenising milk with cream after storage will retain most of the vitamin A. Sautéing is preferred over deep fat frying cottage cheese for different preparations for better retention.