Abstract

Chimezie Anyakora, Ibukun Afolami, Teddy Ehianeta and Francis Onwumere

Food fortification is an important tool for improving the health of the population. Motivated by this, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has in the past few years embarked on a campaign to create this awareness. There has been varying degree of compliance to this, and so it is of utmost importance to know the food products that contribute significantly to the dietary vitamin B intake. This study investigates the amount of four Vitamin B compounds, namely nicotinamide, pyridoxine, riboflavin and thiamin, present in different packaged food items available in Lagos metropolis of Nigeria. The food items analyzed include dairy products, fruit juices and cereal products. These foods were chosen because of their widespread consumption in the area. The analysis was done using a high performance liquid chromatographic technique with a UV detector. The separation was carried out on a C18 column, using a mobile phase made up of 70% buffer (a solution of sodium salt of hexane sulphonic acid) and 30% HPLC grade methanol. The identification was based on retention time match against a standard while the quantitation was based on the peak area match against those of a standard. The calibration curves for the standards were linear with a linear regression coefficient close to unity.