Effect of high pressure on the vitamin B1 and B6 content of milk.

Abstract

The use of high-pressure treatments is being investigated as a promising technology that can lead to minimally processed foods. Low-temperature pressurisation of milk has been suggested as an alternative method for the sanitation and shelf life extension of raw milk that can reduce the intensity of subsequent thermal processing. Vitamin B1 and B6 are very sensitive vitamins that often degrades during conventional food processing methods, so the study of pressure stability of these vitamins seem to be necessary. In this paper we investigated the effect of high pressure (400 Mpa at a rate of 2.5 MPa/s for 30 min) at room temperature on the vitamin B1 and vitamin B6 (pyridoxamine and pyridoxal) content of cow milk. Results indicate that the studied treatment does not produce significant variations in the content of these vitamins (100% retention). Taken into account these results, it seems that high-pressure treatment of milk is a more gentle process than conventional procedures for extending the shelf life of milk.