The contents of β-carotene and cholesterol in selected types of agricultural and processed foods in Korea

Abstract

In this study, the contents of ${\beta}$-carotene and cholesterol were evaluated in various types of agricultural and processed foods (vegetables, legume products, dairy products, and eggs). Certified reference material (CRM) with an assigned value was used for the validation of the ${\beta}$-carotene and cholesterol analytical methods. High recoveries (accuracy) of ${\beta}$-carotene (96%) and cholesterol (97%) were obtained from the quantitative analysis of the CRM, with a relative standard deviation (%) of 1.86 and 3.35% for the ${\beta}$-carotene and cholesterol, respectively. Vegetables contained relatively high concentrations of ${\beta}$-carotene (raw Toona sinensis, $1650.97{\mu}g/100g$, a raw small onion, $879.09{\mu}g/100g$, and a raw lettuce stem, $591.89{\mu}g/100g$). The ${\beta}$-carotene values in dried chickpeas ($22.94{\mu}g/100g$) and dried brown lentils ($21.98{\mu}g/100g$) were similar. The highest ${\beta}$-carotene value among the analyzed dairy products was found in banana milk ($234.21{\mu}g/100g$) while other flavored products (strawberry milk and chocolate milk) did not contain any ${\beta}$-carotene. Furthermore, ${\beta}$-carotene was not detected in goat milk and high calcium milk in this study. With regard to cholesterol among the analyzed samples, the highest cholesterol value was found in egg yolk (629.30 mg/100 g), and cooking methods (boiling and frying) had little effect on the cholesterol levels of eggs. In addition, the cholesterol content in vanilla ice cream was 28.77 mg/100 g which was the highest value among the analyzed dairy products.

Table 1. Recovery rates of β-carotene of certified reference material 485 (mixed vegetables) and cholesterol of certified reference material 1849a (infant nutritional formula).

Table 2. β-Carotene content of selected vegetables.

Table 3. β-Carotene content of selected legume products.

Table 4. The contents of β-carotene and cholesterol in selected dairy products.

Table 5. The contents of β-carotene and cholesterol in eggs.