The safety study of the fat component in adapted infant formula

Abstract

The growth and harmonious development of an infant depends on nutrition provided by natural or artificial feeding. Accordingly the adaptation of the composition of adapted infant formula to the composition of human milk is carried out with all major nutrients. The fat component is one of the key components of an infant’s diet and its’ important aspects are biological effectiveness and safety which changes during processing, storage, transportation and subsequent storage after opening the package. Data on pathological changes in the body with consumption of oxidized fats are known. The aim of the paper is to study some indicators of safety and quality of the fat component of adapted infant formula provided by various manufacturers. As the objects of study we selected one of the most popular adapted infant formula in Russia (in various price categories) under the code names: “IS” (Denmark), “IM”, “IN”, “IL” (Russian Federation), “IX “(Germany). It was found that the quality composition of the fat component of dry infant formula corresponds to the one indicated on the package. However, no one of the test samples according to the averaged composition of the prevailing fatty acids, is fully identical to human milk. The normative documentation of the Customs Union (TR TS 021/2011, TP TS 024/2011, TP TS 033/2013) only regulates organoleptic analysis of the quality indicators of adapted infant formula and from the safety parameters, only finding the peroxide value, which characterizes the accumulation of primary fat oxidation products. It was found that the peroxide numbers of the studied infant formula do not exceed the regulated values. At the same time almost all milk nutrition made from dry infant formula has unsatisfactory organoleptic characteristics. Defects of taste and aroma can be associated with the accumulation of a significant amount of secondary products of fat oxidation, aldehydes particularly in the adapted infant formula. These conclusions are confirmed by the results of determination of the anisidine number in the adapted infant formula, as well as by the accumulation of 0.3-1.0% of highly polar compounds insoluble in petroleum ether (CIPE) and 25-3 mmol/kg of epoxides which lead to decrease of white blood cells and a change in blood formula at a biological animal test. The data obtained indicate the need for assessment of the technology for the production, packaging and storage of adapted infant formula as well as the feasibility of amending the regulatory documents of the Russian Federation and in the future, the regulatory documents of the Customs Union with the aim of further monitoring the safety of the fat component of adapted infant formula.