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Enrichment of the diet with synthetic and natural sources of provitamin A.

The use of available food rich in provitamin A and retinol as well as fortification of local food are known to result in adequate vitamin A status. In Brazil, several regional foods are known to be good sources of provitamin A such as buriti, several palm oils, mango and others. Improving the consumption of these locally available natural sources of provitamin and vitamin A would cover the needs of the vulnerable population. At the same time fortification of industrialized foods with natural and/or synthetic forms of provitamin A could speed up and fill the gap between requirement and low intake of this vitamin in many parts of the country. This approach has been considered by many as the most effective intervention program to prevent micronutrient deficiencies in developing countries. Our previous studies on the subject have shown that cooking vegetable oil, mainly soybean oil, is a very good alternative vehicle to be fortified and supply vitamin A to the population. Lately we have also enriched the same soybean oil with beta-carotene. Addition of this provitamin A to the oil showed it to be stable when heated at cooking and frying temperatures (retention of 92.4 +/- 6.7% and 65.4 +/- 8.6%, respectively). When rat or human food was prepared with carotene-enriched cooking oil, its bioavailability in experimental animals and absorption in humans were shown to be adequate. An alternative for Brazil, besides adding chemical forms of the vitamin to the cooking oil, would be to mix available carotene-rich palm oil to the soybean oil. There are already regional uses of carotenoid-rich palm oils in the preparation of local dishes in some parts of Brazil and this would facilitate its acceptance by the population. Enrichment of common foods in Brazil, such as soybean oil, with chemical forms of beta-carotene or mixing rich sources of provitamin A can be a good alternative to improve the intake of vitamin A by the Brazilian population.