Food fortification: Research reveals improved stability of encapsulated vitamin A

Particles for Humanity has published new research supporting the high stability of its proprietary vitamin A palmitate, which has been a long-running challenge for food fortification programs. The findings support the biotechnology company’s overarching efforts to scale nutrition technologies for low- and middle-income populations. 

The authors note that vitamin A deficiency is a serious health concern, specifically in low- and middle-income countries, which research links to issues in child growth, immunity, and eye health. Fortifying foods with the nutrient is challenging due to its instability.

The research focused on Particles for Humanity-Vitamin A Palmitate (PFH-VAP), a patented encapsulated form of vitamin A coated in a material that protects it from heat and humidity.

Two PFH-VAP were incorporated into bouillon cubes, a staple food consumed widely across West Africa. After 12 months of high-temperature, high-humidity storage, PFH-VAP-fortified bouillon retained three times more vitamin A than that containing a commercial alternative.

“Ensuring vitamin A survives challenging conditions is essential for reaching the communities who need it most,” says Sam Brady, director of Research, Development & Program Management. “This technology brings us one step closer to delivering nutrition at scale.”

Fortifying against a public health threat

Fortifying foods with vitamin A has been a historical challenge, as the nutrient can be unstable and difficult to preserve during processing, such as hulling and milling, and during storage.

Particles for Humanity underscores the prevalence of vitamin A deficiencies as a significant public health challenge in many regions of the world, especially in West Africa.

Researchers tested the viability of highly stable vitamin A in bouillon cubes, a staple of West African diets.It highlights that food fortification is a proven, cost-effective strategy to improve nutritional status. Its solution addresses vitamin A’s instability when exposed to heat and humidity.

The recently published study in Food Sciences & Nutrition explains that PFH-VAP utilizes basic methacrylate copolymer (BMC), a pharmaceutical and nutraceutical tablet coating material with more than 60 years of safe use in humans. 

With an added layer of protection against BMC degradation, PFH-VAP is engineered to withstand the harsh storage and cooking conditions commonly found throughout West Africa.

Researchers prepared multiple formulations and tested their performance under controlled temperature and humidity conditions. The most promising candidates were then manufactured at scale to assess reproducibility and stability.

This milestone represents five years of collaborative work with two key partners. Lesaffre Ingredients Services conducted all spray drying in France, while Eurofins Denmark led analytical testing and stability studies — together generating the data that underpins this publication. Particles for Humanity says their combined expertise was essential in validating PFH-VAP’s performance under real-world conditions.

The company will next focus on commercializing PFH-VAP and securing the first adopters of PFH-VAP for bouillon fortification.

Fortification efforts

In other vitamin A breakthroughs, dsm-firmenich released a dry form of vitamin A designed to enrich baby formula nutrition without the stability issues associated with the essential nutrient. As vitamin A is essential for the development of healthy vision in infants, the new ingredient raises the performance bar of infant nutrition.

Previous vitamin A fortification efforts include the propagation of “golden rice,” a genetically modified variety of the staple crop containing genes from daffodils and bacteria, developed at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. These provide the rice plant with enzymes that allow it to produce beta-carotene, which the human body converts into vitamin A.

Similarly, scientists developed “golden lettuce” with leaves containing beta-carotene levels up to 30 times higher, stimulated by biotechnological treatments such as high light intensity.