Bioavailability of microencapsulated ferrous sulfate in fluid cows milk. Studies in human beings

Iron deficiency anemia is the most prevalent nutritional deficiency in Arge ntina, particularly among infants under 2 years old. At this age the most e fficient way to prevent it is through the daily intake of bioavailable iron in weaning foods. Fluid cow's milk is the most popular weaning food in our country. Nowadays, it is possible to fortify this kind of food with 15 mg of iron per liter by a new technological procedure in which ferrous sulfate is microencapsulated with phospholipids. Therefore we studied the absorpti on of this novel iron fortification compound called SFE-171(TM) by means of the classical double-isotopic method. This study was made in fifteen healt hy adult men, none of them were anemic and all of them had normal iron stor es. Iron absorption from SFE-171(TM) in milk was 9.2% when it was standardi zed to 40% absorption of the reference dose of ferrous ascorbate. We conclu de that the iron from ferrous sulfate microencapsulated with phospholipids has a good bioavailability and it is an effective alternative for the forti fication of fluid cow's milk without affecting its shelf life and its senso rial properties, (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Inc.