

The estimated dietary requirement of vitamin D is at least 5.0 µg/day and may be higher for older people.Īdequate intake of vitamin D is unlikely to be achieved through dietary means, particularly in the groups at greatest risk, although vitamin D-fortified foods may assist in maintaining vitamin D status in the general population.Īn appropriate health message for vitamin D needs to balance the need for sunshine against the risk of skin cancer. The average estimated dietary intake of vitamin D for men is 2.6–3.0 µg/day and for women is 2.0–2.2 µg/day. In Australia, margarine and some milk and milk products are currently fortified with vitamin D. Only a few foods (eg, fish with a high fat content) contain significant amounts of vitamin D.

The groups at greatest risk of vitamin D deficiency in Australia are dark-skinned and veiled women (particularly in pregnancy), their infants, and older persons living in residential care. One study found marginal deficiency in 23% of women, and another frank deficiency in 80% of dark-skinned and veiled women. In Australia and New Zealand, the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency varies, but is acknowledged to be much higher than previously thought. Thus, levels of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D 3, the indicator of vitamin D status, vary according to the season and are lower at the end of winter. The main source of vitamin D for Australians is exposure to sunlight. Statistics,epidemiology and research design.Statistics, epidemiology and research design.The research was supported by a grant from Dairy Farmers of Canada. The authors concluded cottage cheese could be considered a new source of vitamin D fortification or an alternative to vitamin D in drinking milk, and could help reduce the proportion of the population deficient in vitamin D. In taste tests, the fortified cottage cheese was also found to be not significantly different to cottage cheese that was not fortified. Compared with the control cheese, the cheese fortified with vitamin D showed no effects of fortification on cheese characteristics or sensory properties. In cottage cheese, the vitamin D concentration remained stable during three weeks of storage at 4☌. The vitamin D added to cream was not affected by homogenization or pasteurization treatments. The cottage cheese was fortified without any loss of vitamin D in the cheese whey. Unfortified cottage cheese was used as a control. No loss of vitamin DĬream containing vitamin D (145 IU/g of cream) was mixed with fresh cheese curds, resulting in a final concentration of 51 IU/g of cheese. This led to the authors investigating cottage cheese as an alternative. Previous studies reported on the vitamin D fortification of Cheddar cheese, however, results showed that a large proportion of the added vitamin D is lost during the wheying-off step of cheese manufacture, contaminating the whey and making it difficult to use for other purposes. However, the authors point to studies that say one-quarter of Canadians do not meet the RDA (a proportion that rose to more than one-third in the winter). In Canada, drinking milk is fortified to provide vitamin D and help the population meet the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA). The Canadian research was done by scientists at St-Hyacinthe Research and Development Centre, and the Institut sur la Nutrition et les Aliments Fonctionnels, Centre de Recherche en Sciences et Technologie du Lait, at the Université Laval, in Quebec City. The study, published in the Journal of Dairy Science, used cottage cheese because its manufacture allows for the addition of vitamin D after the draining step without any loss of the vitamin in whey. Packaging & Packing Materials, Containers.Processing Equipment & Systems, Automation, Control.Filling & Packaging Equipment & Systems.
