Effect of processing on β-carotene levels in sorghum

Abstract

Sorghum, a staple food in Africa, does not contain adequate amounts of provitamin A carotenoids to address the problem of vitamin A deficiency which affects up to 31 million people on the continent1. One attempt to solve this problem is through fortification with β-carotene, the primary compound in the carotenoid group due to its high provitamin A activity. Due to their high level of unsaturation (Figure 1), provitamin A carotenoids are unstable and are degraded by heat treatment and exposure to light and oxygen during processing and prolonged storage. Due to the importance of β-carotene in preventing diseases such as night blindness, the stability and retention of β-carotene have been tested in many foodstuffs that have been suggested for improving human nutrition.