PROCEDURES USED BY NORTH-CAROLINA DAIRIES FOR VITAMIN-A AND VITAMIN-DFORTIFICATION OF MILK

New research findings have documented fortification errors in fortifie d milk products all across the US milk industry. Also, the consumption of overfortified bovine milk has led the public to question whether v itamin fortification is safe. Therefore, North Carolina dairies were s urveyed to determine vitamin fortification procedures used and to dete rmine differences among these procedures. Of the parameters surveyed, the general conditions under which vitamin preparations were stored, t he method used to add vitamin preparations to milk, and the point duri ng processing at which vitamin preparations were added to milk were di fferent among dairies. Forty-six percent of the dairies stored vitamin preparations under refrigerated conditions, and 54% stored vitamin pr eparations at ambient temperatures. The addition of vitamin preparatio ns to bovine milk was accomplished by metered injection at 64% of the dairies and batch addition techniques at 36%. Vitamin preparations wer e added before fat content standardization and separation by 23% of th e dairy processors; 77% added the vitamin preparations alter this poin t. When dairies were asked at what point they added their vitamin prep arations to the milk, nine different answers were given. Although othe r sources of error could also contribute to inconsistent concentration s of vitamin fortification, differences in fortification procedures ma y have a large impact upon the problem. The diversity of vitamin forti fication practices used in North Carolina may be an indication of nati onwide trends.