Vitamin A is a micronutrient found in foods, in addition there are other compounds that have vitamin A activity; retinols such as alcoholic retinol and esterified palmitate retinol, carotenoids such as β-carotene and cryptoxanthin.
See Technical Note No. 28 for An Analysis of Carotenes.
In this report, retinol was analyzed as an ingredient in accordance with the Food Sanitation Inspection Guidelines.
Retinols in samples were saponified and hydrolyzed to retinol. A liquid-liquid extraction was then performed, the concentrated sample was injected onto an HPLC with UV and fluorescence (FL) detectors.
The analysis of vitamin A in foods, as shown in the following pages, can be performed well with UV detection. However, FL detectors are more sensitive for samples with trace amounts of vitamin A.