Vitamin B5 or Pantothenic acid

The vitamin content of these foods are measured by manufacturers as well as by private laboratories and control authorities to ensure they comply with food standards across the world.

As part of HACCP and label claims, it is important to measure the level of vitamins as they can be affected by inadequate amounts being added, loss due to processing or shelf-life stability. 

A novel assay for water soluble vitamins (VitaFast®) have been introduced by Arrow Scientific.

VitaFast® kits can be used in place of cumbersome traditional assays and have a much shorter hands-on time.  The tests allow you to calculate both native and added vitamins. They were developed according to AOAC and EU reference methods. 

Microtitre plates are coated with specific microorganisms, which grow according to the presence/absence of vitamins in the sample. After placing sample, standard and assay medium into the wells, the plates are incubated and subsequently evaluated using a microtitre plate reader. 

Unlike traditional microbiological assays, all VitaFast® kit reagents are ready for use. The microtitre plate format allows a high degree of automation, thus achieving a significant reduction of labour while increasing precision. 

With an ever increasing number of food products now being enriched with vitamins, from water to bread to yoghurts, consumers and regulators are becoming more aware of claims made. 

VitaFast® is an excellent tool to ensure product quality in terms of monitoring processing, correct nutritional label information and stability of the vitamins in products over time. 

The product line includes: folic acid, vitamin B12, biotin, niacin, pantothenic acid, thiamine, riboflavin and pyridoxine.