Vitamin A Distribution Among Fat Globule Core, Fat Globule Membrane, and Serum Fraction in Milk

Abstract

In cream suspensions and partly skimmed milks obtained by successive centrifugation from whole milk, the concentration of vitamin A per gram of fat was inversely related to the mean size of fat globules. This result indicated that not all the vitamin A of milk was located in the fat globule core, which was further supported by studies of buttermilk and butter oil fractions obtained by churning of cream. These studies indicated that a portion of the vitamin A was associated with the fat globule membrane. The vitamin A content per gram of fat of purified fat globules was similar to vitamin A content per gram of fat of the whole milk from which they were isolated. This result indicated that the amount of vitamin A in the serum fraction was negligible and that vitamin A was localized in the fat globule and fat globule membrane. © 1995, American Dairy Science Association. All rights reserved.