Folates - food sources, analyses, retention and bioavailability

Abstract

Health benefits of folates regarding their prevention of neural tube defects in babies and occlusive vascular diseases caused by elevated plasma homocysteine, their link to mental fitness and possibly certain forms of cancer have already been recognised. However, analyses of food folates is still tedious because of a lack of validated methods for characterisation and quantitation of the great number of native folate forms, but also due to a lack of adequate methods for sample pre-treatment. Therefore, the assessment of folate losses through industrial and household food processing is still incomplete, as well as knowledge on folate bioavailability in humans. This paper reviews the state of art for the occurrence and analysis of folates in foods. Furthermore, results are summarised from studies of folate retention during food processing and the assessment of folate bioavailability. Key words: Analysis, bioavailability, folates, food table data, retentiodosses